Spencer Rascoff, Zillow’s CEO since 2010, will step down. Rich Barton, who co-founded Zillow and previously served as CEO, will take over from Rascoff.
Zillow’s stock fell as much as 8.6 percent late Thursday after the company announced the leadership change. The firm reported revenue in fourth quarter 2018 rising 29 percent to $365 million and its net loss growing to $98 million in the quarter from $77 million the same quarter a year earlier.
Barton said, “2019 will continue to be a year of transformation and investment. We're building on our market leadership, the power of the Zillow Group brand portfolio and our culture of innovation to nurture our new businesses, while also partnering with premier agents and the industry to delight consumers, and set the stage for our next wave of growth. We are sharing our three- to five-year targets that reveal what we believe will be a much larger, integrated online real estate company in which our Homes segment alone can add $20 billion in annual revenue. We created Zillow Group in 2005 to make the real estate shopping and purchase process easier and more seamless. Much of our original dream is just now becoming possible. We are at an inflection point in this quest, and the time is right to shuffle leadership seats. I'm excited to be back as CEO. I am incredibly grateful to Spencer for the indefatigable leadership that got us to this point, and I'm happy we will benefit from his continued support and counsel as a board director.”
