Zillow going public
Just over two months ago, real estate search company Zillow.com filed for IPO status with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and immediately entered what is commonly referred to as the “quiet period” during which the SEC reviews their filed S-1 papers and Zillow cannot influence the market, thus must remain quiet.
On July 6, Zillow filed “Amendment 5 to the S-1” which outlined the basic structure of their pending IPO. 3,462,000 shares under the NASDAQ symbol “Z” were projected to start at $12 to $14 per share bringing the total valuation is $378 million at this share price.
Total valuation now at $485 million
Today, in Zillow’s 6th amendment to their SEC filing, the company amended file share pricing from $12 to $14 up to $16 to $18. This raised price gives Zillow a valuation of $485 million and seeks to raise up to $71.6 million in the IPO.
Class A vs. Class B
Further, the filing notes “Since Zillow’s inception, we have had authorized Class A common stock, which has one vote per share, and authorized Class B common stock, which has ten votes per share. All shares of Class B common stock are held by our founders, Richard Barton and Lloyd Frink. Following this offering and the concurrent private placement, Mr. Barton will have voting control over approximately 0.2% of our Class A common stock and 55.3% of our Class B common stock, representing 46.8% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock, and Mr. Frink will have voting control over approximately 44.7% of our Class B common stock, representing 37.8% of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock.”
Zillow’s traffic has increased substantially between 2010 and 2011 and they claim 1.7 million homes are viewed via mobile devices every 24 hours. Revenues have also grown since 2008 although income has been on the decline which is a major reason they need funding through IPO.
