CoStar completes $1.9B acquisition of Domain

Arlington County-based real estate data and analytics company CoStar Group announced Wednesday that it has completed its $1.9 billion acquisition of Australian property listings platform Domain.

Domain reaches an average of 7 million Australians each month, CoStar said.

“Today marks an important milestone as CoStar Group and Domain officially come together to redefine the Australian property market,” Andy Florance, founder and CEO of CoStar Group, said in a statement. “For too long, agents, buyers and vendors have faced an unbalanced marketplace dominated by an intention to extract value rather than deliver it. Our vision is different. We are building a more compelling user experience at a lower cost — driving greater value for agents, vendors, and buyers alike. We are the agent’s ally, and we will never operate at their expense.”

In May, CoStar announced the acquisition would be 3 billion in Australian dollars, roughly $1.9 billion in U.S. dollars. Now that the acquisition is complete, CoStar is working to integrate Domain into the company and accelerate the rollout of technology and customer solutions in Australia.

Earlier this year, it was announced that CoStar agreed to pay Domain shareholders AU $4.43 per share, equivalent to approximately $2.85 in U.S. dollars.

CoStar could not be immediately reached for comment regarding questions about the role Domain President Jason Pellegrino will play in the combined company, the number of Domain employees who will be integrated into the combined company and whether there will be layoffs.

Based in Sydney, Domain owns several property brands, including Domain, Allhomes, Commercial Real Estate, Domain Insight and Pricefinder.

Costar’s Homes.com brand retained second place in the nation for residential real estate listings based on monthly unique visitors, Florance said in May.

“We dismantled market dominance in the U.S. by transforming Homes.com into a true agent-friendly platform, and we are ready to apply that same proven playbook in Australia,” he said Wednesday.

The acquisition comes as CoStar is suing Zillow for alleged copyright infringement, claiming that the competitor is illegally using tens of thousands of CoStar’s copyrighted images illegally on its real estate listings sites and partnership network sites.

Before the acquisition, CoStar had more than 6,800 employees across 72 offices in 13 countries. The company established a global operations center in Richmond in 2016 and has since grown that office to over 2,350 employees, becoming one of the area’s larger employers. This year, the company moved its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Arlington.