Realtor.com parent company Move Inc. saw its fiscal Q4 revenue decrease 2 percent yearly to $143 million as traffic to the site stalls at 74 million average monthly unique visitors.
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Realtor.com parent company Move Inc.’s fiscal fourth-quarter revenue decreased 2 percent year over year to $143 million, according to an earnings release issued Thursday.
News Corp — which owns Move Inc. — said higher mortgage rates and other macroeconomic headwinds were responsible for the decline. Real estate revenues, which account for 80 percent of Move’s total revenue, declined 2 percent annually. Realtor.com’s lead volume and website traffic growth were flat during the quarter, with the latter metric reaching 74 million average monthly unique visitors based on internal data.
Overall, News Corp’s digital real estate services segment performed well, with revenues growing 21 percent annually to $448 million. The segment’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) increased 25 percent annually to $135 million due to a strong performance at the Melbourne-based residential portal REA Group.
Unlike most U.S.-based companies, News Corp uses a reporting method that ends the year on June 30. What most companies call their second quarter is referred to at News Corp as the fourth quarter.
Robert Thomson
In a prepared statement before the company’s earnings call, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said News Corp is primed to “prosper in the [artificial intelligence] age as they leverage a multi-year global agreement that gives OpenAI access to new and archived articles published by News Corp’s subsidiaries, including The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.
“Fiscal 2024 was an outstanding year for News Corp, as we not only delivered robust earnings growth and created substantial shareholder value, but took a significant step to prepare the Company to prosper in the AI age,” he said in a written statement.
“Our landmark agreement with OpenAI is not only expected to be lucrative but will enable us to work closely with a trusted, pre-eminent partner to fashion a future for professional journalism and for provenance.”
Thomson said Digital Real Estate Services — which includes Move — was partially responsible for the company’s full-year growth, which yielded revenues of $10.09 billion (+2 percent YOY).
Digital Real Estate Services’ full-year revenue increased 8 percent year over year to $1.7 billion; however, Move’s full-year revenues dropped 10 percent to $544 million. Real estate revenues, which account for 80 percent of Move’s total revenue, declined 11 percent as the referral model and core lead generation output declined in the face of continued market headwinds. Lead volumes declined 3 percent for the year, the earnings release explained.
“Our core pillars of growth — Book Publishing, Digital Real Estate Services and Dow Jones — inspired the increasing profitability, and their strength augurs well for Fiscal 2025,” he said. “We are confident in the Company’s long-term prospects and are continuing to review our portfolio with a focus on maximizing returns for shareholders.”
Susan Panuccio | Credit: LinkedIn
In the company’s earnings call, Thomson and Chief Financial Officer Susan Panuccio were bullish about Realtor.com’s recent moves, which include the “111 reasons” advertising campaign championing buyer agency; updates to the portal’s buy- and sell-side offerings, Advantage Pro, Real Choice Selling and Listing Toolkit; and a partnership with Zillow.
“Encouragingly, we are continuing to have notable success diversifying our revenue base with accelerating performance from our sell-side offerings; rentals, which includes our newly formed partnership with Zillow; and new homes,” Panuccio said. “Collectively, those businesses accounted for 19 percent of revenues in the quarter and grew substantially versus the prior year.”
“As we communicated last quarter, we are focused on best positioning Realtor.com for a housing recovery,” she added. “Our key strategic focus areas remain the same as we head into the new financial year and include modernizing our technology stack; investing in content for our product offerings, which most recently included the release of a new dynamic mapping feature; and leveraging News Corp’s network to drive audience share.”
Thomson didn’t directly comment on Realtor.com’s rivalry with CoStar-owned residential portal Homes.com, which escalated during the quarter as Move filed an advertising challenge with the Better Business Bureau Program’s National Advertising Division and a theft of trade secrets lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of California.
“… the market itself was sluggish and the competition more intense,” he said.
The CEO ended his comments by lauding Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales’ leadership while noting the portal is prepared to handle the coming change in commission procedures and take advantage of a market turnaround.
“The market does seem on the cusp of a revival,” he said. “I have to say that Damian has done an excellent job in taking full advantage of our media platforms to raise the profile of [Realtor.com] and drive traffic, and there’s much anticipation [and] excitement.”