News has been coming thick and fast. It is Domain’s turn now. Ninemsn has signed an exclusive deal to carry domain.com.au’s listings starting from Monday the 1st of December.

From my understanding REA did not renew the deal which saw them paying Ninemsn for traffic, much like any advertising deal. Whilst this is not a bad deal for domain (and agents) and will increase traffic to their website, I still don’t see Ninemsn as the beast it used to be and therefore it may only have a minimal impact on traffic.

Having said that Ninemsn still do have a large visitor count, especially with people that do not know how to change their default home page.

Domain also has a deal with Ebay.com.au and Justlisted.com.au (remember them?)

Would be interesting to know where my readers actually go to view their news. Do you go to Ninemsn.com.au?

The REA Group have announced an alliance with Realestate.co.nz hot on the heels of announcing the withdrawal of allrealestate.co.nz. This means all traffic from allrealestate.co.nz will be pushed to realestate.co.nz.

There seems to be back pats all round on this one. I do wonder how this will help agents in New Zealand as my maths tells me more competition = better service = cheaper prices and of course more innovation.

I don’t yet know how this model works and what incomes REA do get from this deal, but it will probably be a % of revenue. Or maybe they will just pump the fees up now there is less competition.

Here is the press release:

14 November 2008

The REA Group and Realestate.co.nz Ltd
Form Alliance in New Zealand

The REA Group and Realestate.co.nz Ltd have formed an alliance. Under the terms of the alliance, the REA Group will close its residential portal (allrealestate.co.nz) on 30 November 2008 and direct its traffic to realestate.co.nz.

The alliance gives realestate.co.nz access to the more than 9.7 million unique browsers a month*–including more than 4 million in Australia alone–who use the REA Group’s international network of real estate websites. These browsers will be able to access realestate.co.nz from a tab on the home page of every REA Group portal and from the map of New Zealand on the REA Group websites.

Alistair Helm, CEO of realestate.co.nz, said:
“This alliance is great news for New Zealand’s real estate agents and consumers; because together with the REA Group we can run a much stronger real estate web portal than if we continued to compete as two separate portals. We believe this will mean a more efficient and cost competitive solution for the real estate industry as compared to all other media options.”

Shaun Di Gregorio, General Manager–Emerging Business Group, of the REA Group, said:
“We expect our alliance with Realestate.co.nz will better serve the country’s real estate agents and consumers–and buyers overseas who are interested in New Zealand property. We have decided that in the long term it doesn’t make business sense for us to operate our own residential real estate site in the country.”

The REA Group will continue to operate unchanged its New Zealand commercial real estate portal, realcommercial.co.nz.

About the Realestate.co.nz
Realestate.co.nz Ltd is a Joint venture company owned in equal shares by The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) and Property Page (NZ) Ltd, a company owned by 6 of the largest real estate companies. The website is the most comprehensive website for real estate in NZ with over 112,000 listings, attracting over 90% of all licensed real estate offices to utilise the website which reaches an audience of over 260,000 unique browsers per month.**

About the REA Group
The REA Group, headquartered in Melbourne, operates Australia’s most popular real estate websites. In total, it publishes 22 websites and eight print publications in 10 countries. The REA Group had revenues of AUD$156m in FY 2008, has more than 9.7 million unique visitors each month* and is profitable. As a listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange (REA), realestate.com.au Ltd operates as an independent entity.

Your thoughts?

REA Group today announced the departure of CEO and Managing Director - Simon Baker, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Georg Chmiel has been appointed as acting CEO until a replacement is announced.

This comes as a little bit of a shock, I honestly thought Simon would be around until he was poached by another company. The Chairman of REA Group Richard Freudenstein said,

“Over the past seven years REA has grown from a single Australian website into a world-leading online property company, with operations in 10 countries and publishing 22 websites and 8 print publications. Now the Board feels it is time for new leadership to take the business to the next level. The Board would like to thank Simon for his contribution to this success and we wish him well in his future endeavours.”

This announcement comes on top of some pretty impressive results. REA’s results for the fiscal year ended in June are astonishingly good.

- Revenue of between $152 million and $156 million (up by 41% to 46%)
- EBITDA of between $35 million and $37 million (up by 49% to 57%)
- More than 22,400 paying agents as at 30 June 08 (up by 5,400 paying agents from 30 June 07)

The New Replacement
Well if you look at the above figures, it is a pretty big ask. My guess if the board want to continue with this growth, then the next CEO will last less than 12 months, as I cannot see that % of growth continuing.

Simon Baker
I have dealt with Simon Baker on a number of occasions over the years and whilst we disagreed on a range of issues, he has always been available for a chat. I wish him well in his future endeavours. He will have leave big shoes and even higher expectations for his successor.