Housevalues re-brands as Market Leader
Most likely through my naivety I didn’t see any other folks pick up on the news that Housevalues has re-branded itself as Market Leader. Perhaps because the company is moving more into managed lead gen for agents and brokerages rather than simply helping consumers get an assessment on the value of their house or perhaps more cynically because the company had what has to be the 2008 stock symbol of the year: SOLD (they will soon trade under LEDR).
The company has largely been shielded from the stockmarket carnage for one simple reason: Investors gave up on the company long ago. See my previous post here. Housevalues continues to trade at roughly its cash balance. Their third quarter results were actually not that bad: They generated 700k in operational cash flow despite revenue falling by one third from the same period one year ago.
The company with its small dwindling revenues, low growth prospects and a public market that values its ongoing operations at zero clearly does not belong on the NASDAQ so it will be interesting to see what becomes of it. It has one huge strategic asset, >$60m in cash, when cash is precious. If it can wait long enough (2 years) it may be able to pick up Trulia or Zillow at a steal price if either misteps through the downturn and their investors decided to give up on either.
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