Spencer Rascoff
Spencer Rascoff

Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff isn’t particularly concerned about News Corp.’s acquisition of Realtor.com operator Move last year. Although Rupert Murdoch’s massive media conglomerate is poised to take a major swing at the U.S. real estate search market, Rascoff told an audience at the Inman Connect conference in New York that his company is focused the most on improving its competitive edge by making better products.

“At Zillow, we’ve never been that focused on any single competitor. So, I don’t know, News (Corp.) buying Move is like, whatever,” he said. “We focus on our users and delighting the people that use Zillow, and delighting the real estate agents and real estate brokers that serve them. And if we just do that, then all this other industry stuff is just noise and it’ll take care of itself if we just do those two things.”

News Corp acquired Move for $950 million last year after Zillow announced that it planned to acquire its rival Trulia. The acquisition of Move closed last year, but Zillow’s deal is still pending approval by the Federal Trade Commission. Rascoff said today that Zillow plans to keep Trulia as a separate brand once the acquisition closes, though run it as a part of a Zillow Group umbrella that will serve as a hub for advertising, listing management and other back-end functions.

Though he’s unconcerned about the deal between News Corp and Move, Rascoff said that he hoped the acquisition would lead real estate professionals to take a fresh look at Zillow and Trulia moving forward.

“It’s important for the industry to understand – and I think they’re starting to – Realtor.com is News Corp. News Corp owns Realtor.com. Let’s be clear. It drives me nuts when I hear Realtors say ‘oh, that’s my website,’ and MLSs say ‘oh, it’s our website,” he said. “No, it’s not. It’s Rupert Murdoch’s website. And as a result, I think when people realize that, they’re more likely to assess Zillow on its merits, for example.”

Murdoch will have a chance to respond to Rascoff’s comments tomorrow when he sits down for an interview at Inman Connect about Realtor.com.

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