The top tech stocks of 2012: Shares of Expedia take off

darts222

Super computers. Online travel. And marketing tools for real estate agents. Those were the hot segments in the Seattle tech sector in 2012 as Cray, Expedia and Market Leader each saw their stock prices more than double. Generally speaking, it was a solid year for tech stocks, with the Nasdaq up 14 percent on the… Read More…

Market Leader trims loss, boosts revenue as battle with Zillow rages

marketleader2

Seattle-based Zillow and Kirkland-based Market Leader are locked in a battle to provide the very best online tools to real estate professionals, something we’ve written about in detail over the past few months. So, how are things shaping up? We got a little bit of insight today as Market Leader announced financial results for the… Read More…

Why Zillow’s CEO wants to be the OpenTable of real estate

Spencer Rascoff

On the surface, OpenTable may not seem to hold many similarities with Zillow. After all, one specializes in restaurants, and other in real estate. But Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff sees similarities between the two companies, telling Business Insider that those companies which simply provide leads to businesses are ripe for disintermediation. In Rascoff’s view, OpenTable has… Read More…

Zillow’s market value tops $1 billion as shares surge

Spencer Rascoff opens trading on the Nasdaq in July

Zillow continues to impress Wall Street, with shares of the Seattle online real estate company igniting today as investors pushed the stock up more than four percent. That boost means Zillow – which went public at $20 per share last July — is now worth just over $1 billion. That’s more than RealNetworks and InfoSpace combined. In… Read More…

Market Leader lands $2.55M deal to help Century 21 agents manage sales leads and marketing

marketleader2

Last month, I reported on how Market Leader and Zillow appear to be on a collision course in the online real estate market as both roll out new services for real estate agents across. Well, Market Leader — the older, but lesser known and less valuable of the two companies — just picked up a… Read More…

Market Leader and Zillow are on a collision course in real estate

marketleader2

Earlier this month, Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff told investors on a quarterly conference call that the Seattle online real estate company planned to make big investments in new tools to help real estate agents boost their productivity and sales. “We are in the midst of a calculated, strategic expansion evolving our agent offering from a… Read More…

Next up at Zillow: Tools to help real estate agents manage leads, contacts and much more

Spencer Rascoff

Historically, Zillow has derived the bulk of its revenue from online advertising, charging real estate agents to gain access to the company’s growing ranks of home buyers and sellers. And while the advertising business won’t be going away anytime soon, Zillow has much bigger ambitions in 2012. Essentially, it wants to become the place where… Read More…

Nasdaq closes with a loss for 2011: A look back at the top and bottom performers

darts-featured

It was a tough year for most of the publicly-traded tech companies in Washington state, with just a handful posting positive overall stock performance. Even tech titans like Amazon.com, Microsoft and F5 Networks shed value in 2011, marking an overall negative year on the Nasdaq. In fact, the tech-heavy Nasdaq  dropped 1.8 percent during 2011,… Read More…

Morning Radar: Goldberg’s Fab.com is raising a big round; Kindle Fire apps; and more

goldberg11

A quick rundown of stories catching our attention this morning … Jason Goldberg’s Fab.com, the New York-based daily deal site led by the former Jobster CEO, is reportedly raising a $40 million to $50 million round at a post money valuation of some $250 million, reports TechCrunch. Menlo Ventures and First Round Capital are apparently backing the… Read More…

Market Leader trims net loss, shows 50% uptick in revenue

marketleader2

Last week, Zillow reported record revenue and strong profits. But Zillow isn’t the only publicly-traded online real estate company operating in these parts. Today, Market Leader posted its own third quarter results, showing a 50 percent uptick in revenue to $9 million. It also trimmed its net loss to $3 million from $3.4 million. “We… Read More…