(Bloomberg)—News Corp. is no longer involved in discussions to sell its Move Inc. subsidiary to CoStar Group Inc., the company said in a statement Tuesday.
The publishing company controlled by the Murdoch family had been in talks to sell the parent of Realtor.com and other real estate-related websites for about $3 billion, Bloomberg reported last month.
News Corp. said in its statement that it will “actively assess opportunities” as it continues a strategy of optimizing the value of its online real estate segment. The company has received interest from other potential buyers, said a person familiar with the talks who asked not be identified because they are private.
On a conference call with investors Tuesday, CoStar Chief Executive Officer Andrew Florance confirmed that “at this point CoStar Group is not acquiring Realtor.com.” CoStar plans to continue investing in its Homes.com site, which is gaining traffic, he said.
“We still have a lot of work to do here,” Florance said. “But we have a clear roadmap and have our heads down focused on building the best residential real estate portal in the United States.”
News Corp., parent of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, owns 80% of Move, as well as a majority of the REA Group Ltd., a publicly traded online real estate business in Australia.
Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch last month called off discussions to merge News Corp. with Fox Corp., the broadcasting business they also control. News Corp. investors had objected to the merger in part because they said it undervalued assets such as the company’s real estate business.
--With assistance from Patrick Clark.
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