Breaking Property News 02/09/24
Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.
The Australian based REA Group announces its intention to acquire UK’s Rightmove
Rightmove whose fortunes have been in the doldrums, as they failed to re-invent themselves, instead just inflating the annual cost of agency licences, has been thrown a lifeline in the shape of a formal announcement that the REA group, owned majoritively by the Murdochs vehicle News Corp wants to buy them.
It would be ironic if REA became the new owner as over 60% of REA is owned by News Corp which is of course an American mass media and publishing company owned by the Murdochs, so Rightmove which was set up as a digital antithesis of the power held by traditional print newspaper publishing, might go full circle and be owned by the Murdochs.
Interestingly News Corp shares went retrograde on this Rightmove news, (it might be a sign) though of course the instant upside for Rightmove is a whopping 20%+ uplift in their share price today.
What is more interesting is to tease out if the newish CEO Johan Svanstrom coming into Rightmove in February 2023, 18 months ago was part of a strategic play to get the company ready for sale, which would show long-term planning, or was it just coincidental. Then of course we have the fact that Alison Dolan the Chief Financial Director at Rightmove resigned on the 29th of May 2024, which supposedly wrongfooted the Rightmove Chair. Again is this just coincidence?
Well, the clock is ticking and in a month we will see if a formal bid lands or if this is just the first round of what may be a protracted campaign, for sure the CoStar Group has mixed up the portal landscape in the UK, the other interesting thought is will Zoopla be next in line for a sale, watch this space.
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