M&A Deal Summary

CoStar Acquires ForRent

On September 12, 2017, CoStar acquired digital media company ForRent from Dominion Enterprises for 350M USD

Acquisition Highlights
  • This is CoStar’s 1st transaction in the Digital Media sector.
  • This is CoStar’s 5th largest (disclosed) transaction.
  • This is CoStar’s 9th transaction in the United States.
  • This is CoStar’s 1st transaction in Virginia.

M&A Deal Summary
Date 2017-09-12
Target ForRent
Sector Digital Media
Buyer(s) CoStar
Sellers(s) Dominion Enterprises
Deal Type Divestiture
Deal Value 350M USD

Target

ForRent

Norfolk, Virginia, United States
ForRent is a digital advertising through a network of four multifamily websites which includes ForRent.com, AFTER55.com, CorporateHousing.com and ForRentUniversity.com. ForRent had approximately 17,000 properties advertised on its websites as of June 2017. Through the first six months of 2017, these sites generated over 47 million visits and an average of 3.5 million unique monthly visitors. ForRent is headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, and has 475 employees located in 38 offices around the United States.

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Buyer(S) 1

Buyer

CoStar

Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Category Company
Founded 1987
Sector Information Services
Employees6,152
Revenue 2.5B USD (2023)
DESCRIPTION
CoStar office in Columbia, Maryland.
CoStar office in Columbia, Maryland.

CoStar is a provider of information services to commercial real estate professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom. CoStar's suite of products offers customers access via the Internet to the most comprehensive, verified database of commercial real estate information. CoStar was incorporated in 1987 and is based in Washington, DC.

DEAL STATS #
Overall 10 of 22
Sector (Digital Media) 1 of 2
Type (Divestiture) 2 of 4
State (Virginia) 1 of 3
Country (United States) 9 of 16
Year (2017) 2 of 2
Size (of disclosed) 5 of 12
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2017-05-10 DataSphere

Bellevue, Washington, United States

DataSphere, Inc. (LandWatch.com) is an operator of network of sites provides buyers with the most comprehensive choice of rural real estate, and property owners with the highest exposure for their listings.

Buy -
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2018-10-11 Realla

London, United Kingdom

Realla is a commercial property technology company. Realla has two products: a software platform called Realbase specializing in digital property marketing and transaction management, and also a free-to-list search engine for commercial property for enquiry generation. The aim of the business is to raise the standard of online marketing, tracking and transaction management for customers.

Buy -

Seller(S) 1

SELLER

Dominion Enterprises

Norfolk, Virginia, United States
Category Company
Sector Information Technology
Employees3,000
DESCRIPTION

Dominion Enterprises is a Norfolk, Virginia-based media and information services company for the automotive and commercial vehicle, real estate, apartment rental, employment and travel industries. It has Internet and printed media operations.

DEAL STATS #
Overall 2 of 3
Sector (Digital Media) 1 of 1
Type (Divestiture) 2 of 3
State (Virginia) 1 of 2
Country (United States) 2 of 3
Year (2017) 1 of 1
Size (of disclosed) 1 of 2
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2016-07-19 Boats Group

Miami, Florida, United States

Boats Group is an online classifieds marketplace and technology provider for the recreational marine industry and operates the four web portals – BoatTrader, boats.com, YachtWorld, and CosasDeBarcos.com. Boats Group has offices in North America (Norfolk, Virginia and Vancouver, British Columbia) as well as in Europe (the United Kingdom, Spain & Italy). Boats Group was founded in 1999 and is based in Miami, Florida.

Sell -
FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
2021-04-14 Homes.com

Norfolk, Virginia, United States

Homes.com is a residential property listing and marketing portal that supports over 500,000 residential agents and brokers in the home sale process. The company provides advertising and marketing services to residential brokers and agents based on listing feeds that cover more than 90% of all Multiple Listing Services (MLS) subscribers in the United States. Homes.com is headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia.

Sell $156M
Mergr

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