Real estate listings site Zillow has just upped the pricing of its IPO to $16 to $18 per share, from $12 to $14 per share. This new pricing gives Zillow a valuation of nearly $500 million ($485 million to be exact).
Zillow, which will begin trading under the symbol “Z” on the NASDAQ, aims to raise as much as $71.6 million in the IPO.
Zillow, which initially filed its S-1 in April, currently lists over 100 million U.S. homes, including homes for sale, homes for rent and homes not currently on the market. Zillow launched a mortgage marketplace in 2008, and subsequently expanded into rentals and mobile.
The number of changes in Zillow’s pricing is similar to LinkedIn and Pandora’s pre-IPO pricing increases. And clearly both of those companies saw strong fluctuations in the share value post-IPO (though both companies have rebounded in July). Some tech companies like HomeAway, Fusion-IO and Yandex have seen steady share values.
According to Experian Hitwise, Zillow.com is the third most visited Real Estate site in the U.S and received 5.36% of Real Estate visits in March 2011, which is a 53% increase compared to March 2010. Clearly, Zillow has impressive traffic and is growing revenue but has yet to make a profit, and has been taking a loss for the past three years. These could be factors in how the market reacts to Zillow next week.