Zillow on Wednesday announced a $650 million public offering, half in stock and half in senior notes.
The real estate listings giant could use the money generated to fund future acquisitions and growth, it hinted in an investor press release posted Wednesday. But the money will not be used to fund Zillow’s purchase of houses to resell through its iBuyer program Instant Offers, Zillow spokeswoman Emily Heffter told Inman.
Instant Offers, relaunched in April as Zillow’s first entry as a buyer and seller of homes itself, is an area where Zillow is quickly expanding and will require capital for Zillow to operate as a house-flipper.
“Additionally, Zillow Group may choose to use a portion of the net proceeds to expand its current business through acquisitions of, or investments in, other businesses, products or technologies,” Zillow wrote to its investors. “However, Zillow Group has no definitive agreements or commitments with respect to any such acquisitions or investments at this time.”
Along with the $325 million in Class C stock and $325 million in senior notes, Zillow is offering underwriters the opportunity to purchase up to an additional $48.75 million in stock and $48.75 million in senior notes. That means that Zillow could raise as much as $750 million through this undertaking.
Zillow also said it will use these funds for “general corporate purposes.”
Zillow posted a record $1.077 billion in revenue for 2017. In the first quarter of 2018, Zillow increased its revenue 22 percent year-over-year to $299.9 million.