CoStar Group, Inc. confirmed its most recent acquisition of the premier commercial real estate news service, Business Immo, based in France.
“The acquisition of Business Immo adds yet another high-quality asset to our expanding international presence,” Founder and CEO of CoStar Group Andrew C. Florance, said in a press release. “We are actively building out our news, information and marketplaces in Europe and France is one of the most important real estate markets in the world with an estimated €40 billion in annual investment transaction value.”
Founded in 2004, Business Immo has rapidly established a national presence in the French commercial real estate market. The popular online property news source now attracts an average of 300,000 visitors per month, mainly consisting of brokers, investors, developers and lenders.
As the publication expands its reach of more than 2,000 subscribing companies and 100,000 followers on social media platforms, it has also added training, education and industry conferences to its product portfolio.
CoStar specializes in information and data related to the market. With more than 235,000 subscribers and 19,000 published articles of its own, the Washington state-based online real estate hub adds the acquisition to its list of major accomplishments, including eight awards and three gold medals from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.
“There is a close intersection of commercial real estate news and information and this connection is very important for CoStar Group, as the value of our news brings people to the platform. Business Immo delivers outstanding independent news services and has an excellent reputation among brokers, owners, lenders and other real estate market participants. We are looking forward to welcoming the Business Immo team to CoStar Group, including its highly-respected leadership team who will continue to run the business,” Florance said.
The European platform addition is intended to aid the company’s global news team expansion efforts, which currently span the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and its international hospitality industry news service, Hotel News Now.
“By joining CoStar Group, Business Immo commences a new stage in its development,” said Sandra Roumi, président déléguée of Business Immo. “Our strategy based on news, events and commercial real estate training is a perfect fit with CoStar Group, and together we will pursue growth in our activities with a focus on best-in-class information technology."