Zillow Group (Z 3.29%) (ZG 4.02%) is reaching into its coffers for a new acquisition. The online real estate portal operator has reached an agreement to purchase privately held ShowingTime.com for $500 million, both companies revealed in separate announcements.
As its name implies, ShowingTime specializes in scheduling home tours for the real estate industry. With a network of around 950,000 agents throughout the U.S., it claims to be "the leading showing software and market stats service provider" for the sector. In 2020, according to Zillow, over 50 million home tours were booked through ShowingTime's platform.
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Zillow is very familiar with the company's offerings; it said that many participants in its Premier Agents program have utilized it for showings. As ShowingTime's new owner, Zillow said it will continue to invest in its solutions and strive to increase engagement with both real estate agents and company partners.
"We have been impressed with ShowingTime's ability to simplify a cumbersome but critical part of the home shopping experience by integrating with MLSs, agents and brokers, and giving buyers' agents an easier way to schedule showings with listing agents," said Errol Samuelson, Zillow's chief industry development officer.
The company added that ShowingTime won't be confined only to Zillow agents and partners. Rather, it will remain an open platform available to third parties, too.
Neither Zillow nor ShowingTime speculated on when their deal might close.
The announcement comes on the heels of Zillow's Q4 results release, in which it posted significant growth and blew past analyst estimates for both revenue and profitability. On Thursday, both classes of the company's stock rose by around 17%, propelling them briefly to new all-time highs.
