Friday, April 29, 2011

LOOPNET SOLD to COSTAR; How much more will our fees go up on the 88,000 subscribers ?

COSTAR ACQUIRES LOOPNET

CoStar Group has signed a definitive agreement to acquire LoopNet for approximately $860 million. The transaction between the two companies is expected to close by the end of 2011. As part of the agreement, LoopNet shareholders will receive $16.50 in cash and approximately 0.04 shares of CoStar Group common stock for each share of LoopNet common stock. This equates to a total equity value of approximately $860 million and an enterprise value of $762 million. Upon closing, LoopNet shareholders will own approximately 8.5 percent of CoStar shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis. In addition, CoStar has received a commitment from J.P. Morgan for a $415 million loan and a $50 million revolving credit facility, which will be used to fund the acquisition and for general operating purposes.
"CoStar revolutionized how the industry researches commercial real estate and LoopNet revolutionized the way the industry markets commercial real estate," said Andrew Florence, president and CEO of CoStar, in a statement. "We expect the combination of our companies to give the $11 trillion commercial real estate market the full benefit of the Internet." With the merger, CoStar's subscriber base stands to grow from 88,000 subscribers to at least 160,000 subscribers, representing approximately 15 percent of the commercial real estate market's participants. LoopNet.com currently has 4.8 million registered users and more than 6 million unique visits quarterly.

For more information on Houston office space, Houston retail space or Houston warehouse space and Houston industrial space, please call 713 782-0260 or see my web site at : www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com  Offer opportunities for Houston office space. Thank you for your interest.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

University of Texas buys GOLD-- Why not Real Estate?

Institutional investors are no doubt recoiling on news that one of their very own – the $20 billion Texas University Endowment Fund – has taken a $1 billion position in dumb ol' gold bars, stored on their behalf in New York vaults, collecting dust but earning no interest and paying no dividend. This report at Bloomberg has all the details: The University of Texas Investment Management Co., the second-largest U.S. academic endowment, took delivery of almost $1 billion in gold bullion and is storing the bars in a New York vault, according to the fund’s board.  The fund, whose $19.9 billion in assets ranked it behind Harvard University’s endowment as of August, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers, added about $500 million in gold investments to an existing stake last year, said Bruce Zimmerman, the endowment’s chief executive officer ....

The decision to turn the fund’s investment into gold bars was influenced by Kyle Bass, a Dallas hedge fund manager and member of the endowment’s board, Zimmerman said at its annual meeting on April 14. Bass made $500 million on the U.S. subprime-mortgage collapse.

“Central banks are printing more money than they ever have, so what’s the value of money in terms of purchases of goods and services,” Bass said yesterday in a telephone interview. “I look at gold as just another currency that they can’t print any more of.”

What has the world come to?
Just think how silly this would have sounded just a few years ago -- that is, before the financial market crash caused investors all around the world to start doubting all sorts of conventional wisdom, not the least of which is the idea that the U.S. currency is sound.

For more information on Houston office space, Houston retail space or Houston warehouse space and Houston industrial space, please call 713 782-0260 or see my web site at : www.houstonrealtyadvisors.com  Offer opportunities for Houston office space. Thank you for your interest.