Zillow has reportedly agreed to hold off on acquiring Trulia until at least early February of next year, marking the latest step that the listing portal has taken to cooperate with the Federal Trade Commission’s review of its plan to merge with Trulia.
Zillow promised the FTC on Nov. 10 not to consummate the deal efore 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Feb. 1, 2015, according to a report that Zillow filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“It’s quite normal for parties to grant the FTC more time,” Zillow said in a statement. “Both companies have produced substantial amounts of information and documents to the FTC and it’s not unusual to give the FTC more time to review that information.”
Zillow said that the transaction is “beneficial” for consumers and real estate agents and expects it to close in the first half of 2015.
The FTC has been studying how a Zillow-Trulia merger could impact competition, and signaled that it wanted to give the potential union a hard look when it requested additional information from the companies in early September.
Previously, Zillow had agreed not to close the deal until at least 60 days after Zillow and Trulia “substantially complied” with the FTC’s request for information about their merger plans, according to the SEC filing.
Under that agreement, which Zillow entered into on Sept. 24, 2014, Zillow theoretically could have merged with Trulia sooner than it’s permitted to now, but only by a few weeks at the most.
The agreement marks the third time that Zillow has agreed to push back the earliest date at which it can complete its merger plans. Zillow was originally permitted to close the transaction just 30 days after “substantial compliance.”
The portal committed to the original timing agreement on Sept. 3, 2014, upon receiving a econd request for information from both Zillow and Trulia about their merger plans. When the FTC makes a second request for information, it’s asking companies to hand over more information, so it can take a closer look at how the transaction will affect competition.
The companies characterized the antitrust regulator’s second request as “a standard part of the full regulatory process” at the time, and said they expected the transaction to close in early 2015.
The new timing agreement doesn’t altogether rule out the possibility of Zillow and Trulia merging before Feb. 1, 2015. The FTC could grant early termination, close its investigation or accept for public comment a proposed consent agreement settling the matter — in which case Zillow can wrap up the deal sooner.
The National Association of Realtors has reportedly asked the FTC to stop Zillow’s acquisition of Trulia on antitrust grounds. Some real estate agents worry a merger could pave the way for Zillow and Trulia to raise the rates it charges for ads and leads across their network of sites, which includes Yahoo Homes, AOL Real Estate, HGTV’s FrontDoor, HotPads and MSN Real Estate.
Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff has said that the listing portal has no plans to raise prices right away if the merger goes through next year. Zillow has said it expects to maintain both the Trulia and Zillow brands, and that the merger would allow it to innovate faster and deliver greater return on investment for agents who advertise on the sites.
