Realtor.com Parent Grows Quarterly Revenue as It Relocates to Texas

The News Corp-owned US real estate portal operator Move, Inc. (the parent company of Realtor.com) saw its first revenue increase in two and a half years as it reported $130 million in takings for Q2 of the Australian financial year.

Relevant highlights from the media giant's missive to the market include:

• Quarterly revenue at Move grew by $3 million, a 2% year-on-year increase to $130 million
• Lead volumes decreased by 2% year-on-year
• Monthly unique users were down 6% in the quarter to 62 million

News of the revenue uptick at Move will come as very welcome news for News Corp's shareholders who have seen the portal operator go through a protracted, and ultimately abandoned, takeover attempt by a rival, a PR war of words and a series of litigations since the last time there was revenue growth at the company.

Intense commentary and comments from rivals have tended to follow recent reports on Realtor.com's traffic. For the three months that ended December 31st, traffic to Realtor's site and app was down 6% year-on-year. However, newly appointed News Corp CFO, Lavanya Chandrashekar pointed out on an investor call that rivals continue to spend much more than Realtor in this area:

“Realtor continues to maintain strong audience share despite much higher competitive marketing spend, underscoring the strength and quality of their audience,”

Chandrashekar also underlined the progress made by Realtor's "new revenues" where the portal has seen growing traction in rentals and new home products. The portal's basic buyer lead generation product, referred to as "Real Estate revenue", continued to account for the vast majority (78%) of total incoming in the period and was essentially flat.

In comments to investors News Corp's CEO, Robert Thomson made it clear that although the media giant had come close to selling off Move a few years ago, the company would be sticking with Realtor.com and backing it to grow market share.

Realtor also announced this week that it would be moving its corporate headquarters from santa Clara, California to Austin, Texas. In a statement company CEO, Damian Eales said that:

"Austin and Texas offer a strong and growing talent pool, a powerhouse economy with unparalleled housing growth, affordability of living only matched by its aspirational lifestyle, expansive tech and academic communities, and a dynamic and vibrant city at the heart of the thriving state of Texas. There is no better place for us to call home,"

Employees located in California have been moved to remote contracts.