Zillow Inc. has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Mortech Inc. for approximately $12 million in cash and 150,000 shares of restricted stock. The planned acquisition was announced earlier this month. Mortech accelerates the development of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, Zillow's lending marketplace where borrowers can connect instantly with reputable lenders to get personalized loan options and real-time mortgage rates. Now Zillow will deliver valuable marketing
and productivity solutions to mortgage professionals to help them manage their business and convert more borrower contacts to funded loans. Currently on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, borrowers submit more than one million loan requests per month and receive on average 25
customized quotes, which they can compare alongside more than 23,000 lender reviews.
"This acquisition represents an exciting leap forward in the development of our mortgage marketplace as Zillow will now deliver valuable marketing and productivity solutions to mortgage lenders to help them grow and manage their business," said Spencer Rascoff, Zillow CEO. "We are incredibly excited to officially welcome the Mortech team to Zillow."
Mortech, which was founded in 1987, will continue to operate from its Lincoln, Neb. office. The company's president, Don Kracl, has been named vice president of mortgage tools at Mortech.
"Zillow is investing significant resources into its mortgage vertical, which will enable Mortech to broaden the reach of our product and deliver even better solutions to lenders. We are thrilled to be part of the team," said Kracl.
Mortech is the fifth acquisition completed by Zillow in two years and its first in the mortgage sector. In October, Zillow acquired Buyfolio, a mobile and online collaborative shopping platform where home shoppers can search, track, organize and discuss for-sale listings with their real estate agent and others in their personal network. Zillow acquired RentJuice, the foundation of Zillow Rentals, in May. In 2011, Zillow acquired Diverse Solutions, which helps real estate agents market their businesses and improve their personal Web sites, and Postlets, a leading online real estate listing creation and distribution platform. Each of these companies provides valuable services that support Zillow's strategic expansion beyond a traditional media model to offer a suite of marketing and business services to local professionals. Earlier this month, Zillow entered into a definitive agreement to buy HotPads, a map-based rental and real estate search site, which will be the company's sixth acquisition and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2012.
