ZPG Ltd. is a British real estate company based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, owned by

Silver Lake Partners Silver Lake is an American global private equity firm focused on investments in technology, technology-enabled and related industries. Founded in 1999, the firm is one of the largest technology investors in the world. Its investment holdings have ...

. Its brands include the property website Zoopla, price comparison service

Uswitch Uswitch Limited is a UK-based price comparison service and switching website founded in 2000. The site allows consumers to compare prices for a range of energy, personal finance, insurance, and communications services. History uSwitch.com wa ...

, finance comparison website Money.co.uk, personal finance content site Bankrate UK, PrimeLocation and Hometrack. Alongside these sites, Zoopla also owns several industry brands providing services to estate agents. These include Jupix, Alto, Expert Agent and Ravensworth. ZPG PLC was listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

until it was acquired by

in July 2018.

History

The company was originally founded as Zoopla in 2007 by Alex Chesterman and Simon Kain. Chesterman and Kain also founded ScreenSelect (later LoveFilm). The Zoopla website was launched in January 2008. Zoopla was backed by

Accomplice Under the English common law, an accomplice is a person who actively participates in the commission of a crime, even if they take no part in the actual criminal offense. For example, in a bank robbery, the person who points the gun at the teller ...

Octopus Ventures Octopus Capital Limited, trading as Octopus Group, is a privately held United Kingdom based holding company founded in 2000 by Simon Rogerson, Christopher Hulatt, and Guy Myles as a fund management company. Through its subsidiaries, it operates ...

and other investors. In July 2009, Zoopla acquired property website Thinkproperty.com from the

Guardian Media Group Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a British-based mass media company owning various media operations including ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer''. The group is wholly owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which exists to secure the financial and e ...

. In August 2009, Zoopla acquired the PropertyFinder Group, consisting of the websites Propertyfinder.com, Hotproperty.co.uk and UK Property Shop, from prior owners the REA Group and

News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...

for an undisclosed sum. These businesses had combined annual revenues of £7m. In January 2011 Zoopla acquired the historic database of UK house prices HousePrices.co.uk. In October 2011, Zoopla and Digital Property Group, the subsidiary of A&N Media, operating property websites Primelocation.com, Globrix.com and FindaProperty.com, merged their respective businesses. In May 2012, Zoopla acquired property information website UpMyStreet.com. In June 2012, Zoopla and its constabularies formed Zoopla Property Group Ltd. In December 2012, Zoopla acquired property information website Globrix.com. In Spring 2013, Stephen Morana, formerly of Betfair Group Plc, was appointed new

Chief Financial Officer The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...

(CFO). Zoopla's biggest shareholder, the

Daily Mail and General Trust Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is a British multinational media company, the owner of the ''Daily Mail'' and several other titles. The 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chairman and controlling shareholder of the company. The head office is ...

floated Zoopla on the

in June 2014. In June 2015, Zoopla bought the price comparison website

. In February 2017 the company changed its name to ZPG plc. In September 2017, Zoopla purchased the financial services comparison website Money.co.uk for £140 million. In May 2018, US private equity firm

made a $2.2 Billion bid for the company. The transaction completed in July 2018.

Operations

ZPG owns a searchable directory of UK residential properties. It uses various open sources including the

Royal Mail , kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Royal Mail.svg , logo_size = 250px , type = Public limited company , traded_as = , foundation = , founder = Henry VIII , location = London, England, UK , key_people = * Keith Williams ...

's postcode database, the

HM Land Registry His Majesty's Land Registry is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's Government, created in 1862 to register the ownership of land and property in England and Wales. It reports to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ...

's data on property transactions in England and Wales, and

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

maps. Based on this data, Zoopla has developed an

automated valuation model An Automated Valuation Model (AVM) is a system for the valuation of real estate that provides a value of a specified property at a specified date, using mathematical modelling techniques in an automated manner. AVMs are Statistical Valuation Method ...

, powered by Hometrack, that provides a computed valuation estimate for UK residential properties. Zoopla also allows users to claim their home or set a TemptMe price, similar to US website

Zillow Zillow Group, Inc., or simply Zillow, is an American tech real-estate marketplace company that was founded in 2006, and was created by Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink, former Microsoft executives and founders of Microsoft spin-off Expedia; Spencer R ...

. Its analogue for valuing the Internet properties is DNPric.es. The accuracy of Zoopla's computed valuations is disputed.

Sponsorship

ZPG sponsored West Bromwich Albion Football Club from 2012 to January 2014. Founder Alex Chesterman, who is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, decided to remove support of the club after an allegedly anti-Semitic gesture from player Nicolas Anelka made headlines.

References

External links

ZPG website

Zoopla
{{Online real estate databases Real estate companies established in 2007 British real estate websites Real estate valuation Property services companies of the United Kingdom British companies established in 2007 Online real estate databases Internet properties established in 2007 Privately held companies of the United Kingdom Silver Lake (investment firm) companies

History

Operations

Sponsorship

See also

References

External links