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Zillow, Trulia Complete Acquisition Deal

busineshandshakeDays after getting the nod from the Federal Trade Commission [1], Zillow [2] has finally completed its $2.5 billion acquisition of Trulia [3], the companies announced jointly Tuesday afternoon.

Along with the acquisition, Zillow also announced the launch of Zillow Group, Inc., a family of real estate and home-related brands across the Web and mobile platforms. Besides Trulia, the brand portfolio includes StreetEasy, a real estate marketplace focused on New York City, and rental search brand HotPads. Zillow Group will trade under Zillow's old ticker symbol, "Z," and will inherit the company's trading history.

Expressing his excitement for the Trulia acquisition, Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff said the completion of the deal marks a "pivotal day in online real estate."

"Each of our brands share a consumer-first philosophy, and our power combination of insights and expertise will drive even greater innovation for consumers, empowering them with essential information they need to make critical financial decisions," Rascoff said. "Our combination will also enable real estate professionals to more efficiently and easily reach the nation's largest audience of engaged buyers, sellers and homeowners, and extract even more value from their advertising."

According to the announcement, the acquisition was made in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at $2.5 billion, a figure based on Zillow stock's closing price on February 17. The deal, first announced last July and approved by shareholders in December, had been put on hold while the Federal Trade Commission investigated it.

As a result of the acquisition, the companies eliminated approximately 280 positions, due primarily to redundancies in staffing, they announced. Another 70 positions will be cut by the end of Q2. All affected employees have already been notified.

Staying on is Paul Levine, who previously served as Trulia's CEO and who will now serve as the company's president. Pete Flint, co-founder and former CEO of Trulia, has joined Zillow Group's board of directors, as has former Trulia board member Greg Waldorf.