CoStar Group Inc., a commercial real estate (CRE) information company based in Washington, D.C., has signed a definitive agreement to acquire LoopNet Inc., a San Francisco-based company that operates a leading online CRE marketplace.
According to the companies, the transaction will double the size of CoStar's paid subscriber base to at least 160,000. With the addition of LoopNet's complementary listings, CoStar will have a database with approximately 2 million active listings.
Pursuant to the merger agreement, LoopNet shareholders will receive $16.50 in cash and 0.03702 shares of CoStar Group common stock for each share of LoopNet common stock, representing a total equity value of approximately $860 million and an enterprise value of $762 million.
‘We expect the combination of our companies to give the $11 trillion commercial real estate market the full benefit of the Internet,’ says Andrew C. Florance, president and CEO of CoStar.
