Zillow is pushing back its proposed $3.5 billion acquisition of rival Trulia to Feb. 15 in order to comply with a second request for more information from the Federal Trade Commission. The Seattle online real estate company initially pushed back the merger date to Feb. 1.
But in a SEC filing today, the company indicated that it had entered into an agreement with the FTC not to close the deal before 11:59 p.m. (Eastern time) on Feb. 15. Zillow first announced its planned acquisition of San Francisco-based Trulia on July 28.
“Neither the Timing Agreement nor the Amended Timing Agreement prevents the parties from consummating the Proposed Transaction sooner if the FTC grants early termination, closes its investigation or accepts for public comment a proposed consent agreement settling the matter,” the company wrote in the filing. “The parties anticipate that the Proposed Transaction will be completed in the first half of 2015.”
Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff has argued that a combined Zillow and Trulia would control just four percent of the overall advertising spend in the real estate sector in the U.S.
“Most advertising still occurs offline, it hasn’t migrated to the internet yet,” Rascoff told CNN earlier this year. The companies also have said that they plan to maintain the Zillow and Trulia brands, and keep prices competitive on advertising rates.
Shares of Zillow have slumped in the past three months, down about 12 percent. It is now valued at $4.23 billion.
