Zillow Grabs San Francisco-Based Postlets, an Online Real-Estate Listing Syndicator

Seattle-based online real estate website Zillow has acquired San Francisco-based Postlets, a startup that syndicates property listings across about a dozen sites. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Zillow wouldn’t comment on any possible layoffs as part of the acquisition.

Postlets says it has more than 500,000 registered users generating more than 350,000 sale and rental listings nationwide. It operates on a “freemium” model, providing basic services for no charge and collecting fees for pro-level accounts.

Zillow has been reported to be mulling an initial public offering. The company, which has collected close to $90 million in financing, said last year that it was profitable.

“Ask anyone in the industry, and they’ll tell you that Postlets is a great tool for agents looking to promote their listings and manage their online presence, for free,” Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff wrote in a blog post this morning. He added that Postlets will continue its current partnerships to distribute listings across 13 websites.

Postlets’ co-founders, Asher Matsuda and Raymond Chen, are joining Zillow as full-time employees. Postlets also said in its own blog post that it would retain a free service after the acquisition. The two companies had been working together already— Postlets announced in January that its listings were being syndicated on Zillow.

Author: Curt Woodward

Curt covered technology and innovation in the Boston area for Xconomy. He previously worked in Xconomy’s Seattle bureau and continued some coverage of Seattle-area tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft. Curt joined Xconomy in February 2011 after nearly nine years with The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. He worked in three states and covered a wide variety of beats for the AP, including business, law, politics, government, and general mayhem. A native Washingtonian, Curt earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. As a past president of the state's Capitol Correspondents Association, he led efforts to expand statehouse press credentialing to online news outlets for the first time.