Zillow Group’s (Z) acquisition of DotLoop, a Cincinnati-based company that boasts it can simplify real estate transactions by enabling brokerages, real estate agents, and their clients to share, edit, sign and store documents digitally, is now complete.
Zillow first announced the acquisition of DotLoop in July. At the time, Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff said that Zillow intends to invest in DotLoop’s platform and make more widely available, adding that homebuyers, sellers and real estate professionals all want to see real estate transactions move online.
“DotLoop is very exciting for us,” Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff said earlier this month. “There is no question that real estate transactions are moving online, any of you who have bought a home, know that signing hundreds of pages of documentation is a burden and that the day of the paperless transaction is here now, and DotLoop is the clear leader in the category.”
And to acquire the “clear leader” in online documents, Zillow paid a hefty price.
The price Zillow paid for DotLoop was not disclosed when Zillow first announced the deal, nor did Rascoff discuss the price during a call with investors earlier this month, but Zillow did disclose the price its paying for DotLoop in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In Zillow’s 10-Q filing, it disclosed that the purchase price for DotLoop was to be approximately $108 million in cash, “less certain transaction expenses and as adjusted at closing based on DotLoop’s net working capital, cash and debt, plus the estimated fair value of substituted stock options attributable to pre-combination service.”
DotLoop was founded in 2009 and is led by Austin Allison, who will continue with the company as founder and general manager and will report to Errol Samuelson, Zillow Group’s chief industry development officer.
Rascoff said earlier this month that he believes DotLoop can do for the real estate transaction what Zillow itself did for real estate searches.
“The way I would characterize this acquisition is that we've spent the last 10 years innovating on the search process, helping consumers select what home they want to go see and buy, and we intend to apply as much innovation to the transaction itself, as we have to the search process,” Rascoff said.
“We are pleased to welcome DotLoop to the Zillow Group family,” Zillow Group said in a statement provided to HousingWire.
“Austin and his team have done a fantastic job developing DotLoop and we look forward to driving this technology forward by investing in DotLoop’s platform, providing additional benefits to DotLoop’s current customers and making it available to our more than 10,000 broker partners and the agents they represent as well as the more than 100,000 agents that advertise across Zillow and Trulia,” Zillow Group concluded.
Excited to officially welcome @dotloop to the Zillow Group family.
— Zillow Group (@ZillowGroup) August 20, 2015
A big welcome to all the #loopers from @dotloop! We are so excited to have you as part of @ZillowGroup as this acquisition closes today.
— Amy Bohutinsky (@amybo) August 20, 2015
It's official. We closed! On behalf of the entire team at @dotloop, we are excited to be a part of the @ZillowGroup family.
— Austin Allison (@GAustinAllison) August 20, 2015
