If the market caps of real estate portals Zillow ($3.77 billion) and Trulia ($1.28 billion) sometimes raise eyebrows, news that Airbnb is close to securing another round of funding that would value the company at more than $10 billion could help bolster the perception that long-term growth expectations for companies in the online real estate space are realistic.
The rising valuations of publicly traded companies in the space can help them achieve growth by fueling their acquisitions of companies, technologies and talent. Zillow, Trulia and realtor.com operator Move Inc. have been buying up smaller companies that can help them broaden the services they provide to real estate brokers and agents.
Investors are fickle, though — since last fall, shares in Move have fallen 33 percent from a 52-week high of $18.36, bringing the company’s market capitalization back down under $500 million. Source: wsj.com.
