Big day for Zillow: ‘Z’ IPO is official

Inman

13 years ago

Zillow went public today under the NASDAQ symbol ‘Z,’ with a starting price of $20 per share. Watch Inman News for a full report.

Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff (center, above "Z"), joined by other company executives, rang the opening bell for the NASDAQ Stock Market today to celebrate the company’s initial public offering.

Timeline: Zillow, from incorporation to IPO

Event Date:	Event Title:	Event Description:
12/30/2004	Incorporation	Zillow Inc. files for incorporation in its home state of Washington, with Expedia founder Rich Barton as CEO. A number of other key executives, including co-founder Lloyd Frink, are also Expedia veterans.
11/01/2005	Prediction	Inman News predicts Zillow "will shake up" the real estate industry. Although the company’s intentions are still "shrouded in secrets," patent and trademark recordings filed by the company indicate "it has plans for some kind of online marketplace for real estate listings."
01/05/2006	Speculation	Even before the site launches, some are speculating it will force drastic change in the real estate industry — fears that are fueled by revelations that Zillow has acquired real estate brokerage licenses in five states.
02/08/2006	Beta launch	Zillow launches the initial version of its website, Zillow.com, in beta. The site offers automated valuations called "Zestimates" for 60 million U.S. homes. Two days later, the site logs its 1 millionth visitor.
03/10/2006	‘A hurricane’	Inman News columnist Bernice Ross declares that "A hurricane the magnitude of Katrina has just hit the real estate industry," as Zillow.com’s traffic surpasses other real estate sites despite questions about the accuracy of its valuations. ComScore Media Metrix ranks Zillow as the
04/02/2006	Formation of technical advisory board	Zillow forms a technical advisory board to provide independent advice on improving the technology and algorithms that support the company’s online services.
10/05/2006	FTC complaint filed over valuations	The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a group that promotes investment in traditionally underserved communities, files a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission claiming Zillow is misleading consumers and industry professionals about the accuracy of Zestimates. Zillow calls the allegations groundless, saying Zestimates are intended to be a starting point.
12/04/2006	Creation of listings portal	Zillow becomes a listing portal — real estate agents and consumers who register with the site can designate individual properties as "for sale," and owners can post a "Make Me Move" price. Industry reaction is mixed.
01/02/2007	IPO prediction	Venture capitalist Lucinda Stewart of OVP Venture Partners in Kirkland, Wash. predicts Zillow will go public in 2007.
03/20/2007	Zillow acquires brokerage licenses in most states	Rich Barton acknowledges that Zillow has acquired brokerage licenses "in most states" in order to ensure it has legal standing to publish real estate information. "We do not operate and have zero intention of operating any brokerages," Barton writes on the company’s blog.
04/01/2007	Arizona Board of Appraisal sends cease-and-desist letters	The Arizona Board of Appraisal issues two cease-and-desist letters to Zillow, charging the company’s automated valuations are appraisals and require a license. Zillow says its Zestimates are not appraisals, and continues to offer automated valuations to Arizona consumers. The issue is resolved in July when Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano
04/03/2007	Post info, photos for any property	Zillow introduces new tools that allow any Zillow user to post information and photos about any property, with listing agents and property owners having the ability to "take control" of for-sale property information and enter more detailed information.
07/03/2007	Neighborhood pages added	Zillow adds neighborhood pages with detailed demographic information for more than 130 cities, allowing users to add photos, events and news, and participate in discussions and Q&A sessions.
09/04/2007	Third round of financing	Zillow completes a third round of financing, raising $30 million, bringing total funding by outside investors to $87 million.
10/03/2007	ERA signs agreement for bulk upload of property listings	Zillow signs announces its first agreement for the bulk upload of about 80,000 property listings from brokerages affiliated with franchise network ERA Franchise Systems LLC. Zillow had previously accepted listings individually from consumers and real estate agents. When the announcement is made, Zillow is displaying 237,000 for-sale listings.
11/02/2007	New features for bulk feeds, newspaper classified ads	Zillow launches its bulk listings feed capability, allowing real estate brokerages to feed listings to Zillow.com. The company also announces a partnership with 11 newspaper chains that will allow it to receive classified ads for for-sale listings and open house announcements from 282 newspapers.
02/02/2008	Realogy brands to feed 700k property listings	Realogy Corp. announces it will feed 700,000 property listings from Century 21, Coldwell Banker, ERA and Sotheby’s brokerages to Zillow.com, expanding on the previous agreement between Zillow and ERA Franchise Systems. When the announcement is made, Zillow has about 1 million listings on the site.
03/19/2008	First MLS to feed listings	Zillow enters into its first partnership with an MLS — New England-based MLS PIN – which agrees to feed 60,000 listings to Zillow.com.
04/01/2008	Blog estimates Zillow’s value at $225M	The blog Silicon Alley Insider estimates that Zillow is worth about $225 million.
04/03/2008	Mortgage Marketplace launches	Zillow launches its Mortgage Marketplace, allowing consumers to request loan quotes from mortgage originators.
09/10/2008	Advertising alliance with 11 newspaper publishers	Zillow forges an advertising alliance with a consortium of 11 newspaper publishers, allowing them access to each others’ audiences.
10/01/2008	Premier Agent advertising program launches	Zillow launches its Premier Agent advertising program.
10/17/2008	40 layoffs announced: 25% of workforce	Zillow announces it is laying off 40 people, or 25 percent of its workforce, saying "unprecedented economic events" make a prolonged recession likely.
11/05/2008	Zillow relinquishes brokerage licenses in all but 2 states	Zillow announces that it is relinquishing its real estate brokerage licenses in all but two U.S. states, having established its ability to publish real estate-related information.
12/16/2008	Zillow Advice launches	Zillow rolls out "Zillow Advice," a new feature that allows consumers to pose questions to an online community of real estate experts. Zillow Advice builds on existing Q&A and discussion sections of the website that are already generating 40,000 contributions a day, the company says.
02/05/2009	Mortgage Marketplace reaches 1M milestone	By February 2009, mortgage originators had provided more than 1 million loan quotes to Zillow’s Mortgage Marketplace.
04/29/2009	Zillow iPhone app released	Zillow releases its first mobile application, a free iPhone app that allows users to see their location on a map as they walk or drive through a neighborhood, pulling up details on about 95 percent of all U.S. homes. The company goes on to offer apps for the iPad, Android and BlackBerry.
12/14/2009	Zillow launches rental listings, search	Zillow branches out into rental listings and search, offering visitors the ability to use the monthly payment they can afford as a search filter to compare rental housing and homes for sale side by side on a map.
01/01/2010	Zillow charges morgage lenders that offer loan quotes	Zillow begins charging mortgage lenders who offer loan quotes to consumers through the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace.
03/08/2010	Journal issues study on Zillow valuations in Arlington, Texas	A study in The Appraisal Journal concludes Zillow.com overvalued 40 percent of the 2,045 homes sold in Arlington, Texas, in the last half of 2006 by more than 10 percent. Zillow dismisses the findings, saying the data used was "out of date and limited in scope."
04/08/2010	Zillow named in patent infringement lawsuits	Zillow is a defendant in two patent infringement cases, filed by Smarter Agent LLC and Lending Tree LLC.
04/16/2010	CoreLogic sues Zillow, others	CoreLogic sues Zillow and seven other companies, claiming their automated property valuation services infringe on a 1994 patent.
07/08/2010	Yahoo Real Estate, Zillow announce ad/listings deal	Yahoo Real Estate, Zillow announced agreement for Zillow to provide real estate listings to Yahoo Real Estate. Zillow gains the exclusive right to sell real estate agent advertising throughout the Yahoo Real Estate site.
09/14/2010	Spencer Rascoff promoted to CEO	Spencer Rascoff, a member of Zillow’s original executive team, is promoted from chief operating officer to CEO. Co-founders Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink, say they will continue to play an active role in the company — Barton as chairman of the board of directors, and Frink as chief strategy officer.
12/02/2010	Zillow launches agent ratings and reviews	Zillow begins collecting and displaying consumer-generated real estate agent ratings and reviews — but only if the agent and client have both activated profiles on the site. As of last month, Zillow had published more than 50,000 agent reviews submitted by consumers.
02/03/2011	Zillow, Yahoo Real Estate launch ad/listings program	Zillow flips the switch on the real estate listings and advertising program forged with Yahoo Real Estate.
03/09/2011	Zillow launches Rent Zestimates for 90M homes, apartments	Zillow.com begins offering "Rent Zestimates" for about 90 million homes or apartments — whether they’re actually available for rent or not.
03/25/2011	10K paid subscribers for Premier Agent ad program	By the end of March 2011, Zillow’s Premier Agent ad program boasts more than 10,000 paying subscribers, Zillow later reveals in a regulatory filing.
04/11/2011	Zillow acquires listings syndication platform Postlets	Zillow acquires listing syndication platform Postlets.
04/18/2011	Zillow files S-1 registration in preparation for IPO	Zillow files its initial S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation for an initial public offering. The filing reveals many previously unknown details about the company’s past, and its plans for the future. Although the company has amassed cumulative losses of $78.7 million since 2004, ads have helped Zillow nearly triple revenue from 2008-10.
04/21/2011	Zillow inks long-term agreement related to ListHub	Zillow announces a long-term agreement with Move Inc. to continue receiving data on about 2 million for sale listings aggregated by Move subsidiary ListHub from hundreds of multiple listing services.
06/07/2011	CoreLogic settles with 2 companies in patent lawsuit	CoreLogic settles with two companies in AVM patent case, leaving Zillow and eight other companies as defendants.
07/20/2011	Zillow IPO is official	Zillow IPO is official.