Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to note that an offering of Zillow shares that closed Sept. 24 was a follow-on offering dilutive to existing shareholders, not a secondary offering of previously issued shares.
Real estate search and marketing portal Trulia Inc. said today it expects to to raise about $66 million after expenses in an initial public offering of 5 million shares if the company’s stock is priced at $15 a share, the midpoint of a $14 to $16 estimated offering price range.
If underwriters exercise an option to purchase 900,000 additional shares, net proceeds from Trulia’s IPO would total $78.3 million, the company said in a regulatory filing — about what rival Zillow raised when it went public last year.
After the IPO, all of three of the largest real estate search portals on the Internet — Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com — will be operated by publicly traded companies.
In July, 2011, Zillow raised $75.7 million in an IPO and private placement of 3.7 million shares priced at $20 each. Shares in Zillow now trade for twice that much, and this week Zillow announced a follow-on offering of 3.425 million shares priced at $43 a share, to generate $147 million before expenses.
Both Trulia and Zillow have said they plan to use the money they’re raising for working capital and other general corporate purposes. But the extra cash could also fuel acquisitions.
Zillow and Realtor.com operator Move Inc. have both been acquiring companies that can help them provide services to their biggest customers — real estate brokers and agents who hope to land consumers who visit the sites as clients.
Zillow acquired Diverse Solutions, a listings content provider that powers property searches for real estate agents’ websites and mobile platforms, in November for $7.8 million.
Move this week announced its acquisition of real estate lead generation and management company TigerLead Solutions LLC for $22 million.
Last year Move bought the social media search platform SocialBios, and got into the business of syndicating for-sale listings to other websites in 2010 through the purchase of ListHub parent company Threewide Corp. for $13.1 million.
Trulia — which in December 2010 acquired Movity, a startup that helps homebuyers and renters learn more about the area they’re considering living in — says it may use a portion of the net proceeds from the IPO "to acquire or invest in complementary businesses, products, services, technologies or other assets."
But Trulia says it’s not entered into any agreements or commitments with respect to any acquisitions or investments.
Existing Trulia shareholders will also offer an additional 1 million shares in the IPO, but the company will not receive any of the proceeds of those sales. Company executives and officers who cumulatively own a 50 percent stake in the company plan to sell 577,000 shares in the IPO.
Co-founder and former company President Sami Inkinen will put up 228,400 shares for sale, and CEO Pete Flint is offering 209,600. Inkinen and Flint will each own more than 2 million shares in the company after the IPO.
All told, Trulia’s 10 executive officers and directors will own a 38.9 percent stake in the company after the IPO. Theresia Gouw Ranzetta, who is not offering any shares in the IPO, will continue to own 5 million shares, but her stake in the company will be diluted from 23.6 percent to 19 percent.
