Zillow Group Announces Sale of ActiveRain to the Ben Kinney Companies

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Jun 19, 2015, 04:05 ET

SEATTLE, June 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Zillow Group, which houses a portfolio of the largest and most vibrant real estate and home-related brands on mobile and Web, today announced the pending sale of ActiveRain®, a social networking, blogging, and training platform for the real estate industry, to the Ben Kinney family of companies. The sale is expected to close June 30, 2015.

"Ben Kinney taking on the ownership of ActiveRain is a positive step forward in the stewardship of this important and influential community of real estate professionals," said Spencer Rascoff, Zillow Group chief executive officer. "As part of Ben's organization, ActiveRain will be a major focus, benefiting from Ben's leadership and oversight, helping ActiveRain continue to flourish within the agent community. We look forward to watching ActiveRain grow and evolve."

"We're eager to bring ActiveRain back to its roots and continue the work Jonathan Washburn, Bob Stewart and the team started in 2006," said Kinney. "We have some great things in store for ActiveRain that we think agents who use the site are going to love."

The Ben Kinney family of companies is a collection of real estate-related training and software companies, including Real Launch, Brivity and Blossor, as well as the technology firms Big Fresh and Tech Help. Kinney has been a licensed real estate professional for 11 years and leads nearly 1,000 agents in the real estate brokerages he owns and operates in the U.S. and the U.K.

ActiveRain became part of Zillow Group through its acquisition of Trulia®, which closed in February 2015. Kwkly®, a text-to-lead service that helps connect buyers with agents, is also being acquired as part of this transaction, and is expected to transfer to the Ben Kinney companies within the next 30 days.

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Zillow Group
Zillow Group (NASDAQ:Z) houses a portfolio of the largest real estate and home-related brands on the Web and mobile. The company's brands focus on all stages of the home lifecycle: renting, buying, selling, financing and home improvement. Zillow Group is committed to empowering consumers with unparalleled data, inspiration and knowledge around homes, and connecting them with the right local professionals to help. The Zillow Group portfolio of consumer brands includes real estate and rental marketplaces Zillow®, Trulia®, StreetEasy® and HotPads®. In addition, Zillow Group works with tens of thousands of real estate agents, lenders and rental professionals, helping maximize business opportunities and connect to millions of consumers. The company operates a number of business brands for real estate, rental and mortgage professionals, including Postlets®, Mortech®, Diverse Solutions®, Market Leader® and Retsly™. The company is headquartered in Seattle.

Zillow, Postlets, Mortech, Diverse Solutions, StreetEasy, and HotPads are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc. Retsly is a trademark of Zillow, Inc. Trulia is a registered trademark of Trulia, Inc. ActiveRain, Kwkly, and Market Leader are registered trademarks of Market Leader, Inc.

SOURCE Zillow Group