Zillow has poached Move Inc.’s executive vice president of industry development, Curt Beardsley, the second Move exec it’s hired in March.
Beardsley, who will be vice president of industry development at Zillow, was promoted by Move to fill the industry-relationship role that opened up when Errol Samuelson, former president of realtor.com and Move chief strategy officer, shocked the industry with his surprise move to Zillow on March 5.
“Curt has extensive experience in the real estate sector with a great combination of skills and leadership and we’re excited to welcome him to Zillow,” said Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff in a statement.
Curt Beardsley
Beardsley, who joined Move as a vice president of marketing in 2005 and was one of the public faces for the company, will be responsible for cultivating relationships with multiple listing services and other industry partners in his new role at Zillow.
“I’m excited to join Zillow because of their commitment to build great products and services that benefit the real estate industry and consumers,” Beardsley said in a statement. “I look forward to listening to MLSs and other Zillow partners to evolve our industry programs and technology to ensure Zillow is the best partner we can be.”
Minutes before Zillow’s announcement, news broke that Move and the National Association of Realtors had filed a lawsuit against Zillow and Errol Samuelson for alleged breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets, among other claims.
Over the course of the past two weeks, Zillow has snatched two of Move’s most high-profile execs. Samuelson’s departure led some to question whether he knew something about Move that would later come out.
“But the more interesting narrative I think is this, what does Errol know that we don’t know?” wrote Greg Robertson in a post in his industry insider blog Vendor Alley at the time. “This kind of move doesn’t happen without something else lurking out there.”
Rick Sharga, executive vice president of Auction.com and a former exec at Carrington Holding Company and RealtyTrac, expressed the same sentiment in a tweet today. “That’s a lot of firepower for Zillow, and two big losses for Move. Does beg the question: Something up at Move?”
Industry vet Saul Klein, senior vice president of Point2, was one of several stunned by the news that Beardsley would be joining Zillow. “Which one (Samuelson or Beardsley) is the bigger acquisition really?” he said.
Zillow’s swipe of Samuelson was a surprise, but taking Beardsley, too, is a coup, he said. “Who would have thought they could pull it off?”
“Who’s No. 3 at realtor.com and what are they thinking now?” Klein said.
