<div><em>Quikr offer of $170 mn fall far below the $235 mn valuation and Housing investors may turn it down, says <strong>Vishal Krishna</strong></em><br><br><br> There are rumours that Quikr’s investors have agreed to buy Housing.com for $170 million, much less than the $235 million valuation that the company garnered in 2014. <br><br>One of the main reasons behind the fall in valuation was the spat between CEO and founder, Rahul Yadav and the investors. Sources in Quikr say that the deal may not come through because Housing’s investors may not accept a lower valuation in an all-stock deal. The second question to ask is whether Housing.com should sell their business at all now that the CEO has quit? Is this an early warning that all real estate classifieds will have to merge or consolidate because investors predict a slowdown in the property market? Magicbricks, RealtyCompass, CommonFloor and 99Acres may be running their course and will eventually be acquired in two years time.</div><div> </div><div>According to real estate consulting firm JLL India, the rental market has seen a slight drop of 4 per cent in metros. However, if the Housing.com deal comes through, then investors will still benefit because they will get stock of Quikr, which has been valued higher than Housing. By strengthening its real estate portfolio, Quikr can then take on its competitor OLX by adding more customers.</div><div> </div><div>Quikr is already a leading classified platform and adding Housing.com’s real estate classified data, in to its portfolio, is a natural extension to the business. Like all dotcoms Quikr claims more than 30 million monthly users, which is number also quoted by Housing.com. However, estimating the gross merchandise value of both these companies is anyone’s guess. We at BW|Businessworld say that only 15 per cent of that 30 million are regular customers as of now. The one thing that is in favour of these startup 3.0 firms is that the potential in India is huge and still unpredictable. It is a matter of time before many users move online.Housing.com has technology synergies that can enable Quikr to ramp up its operations. Housing’s in-house data team is trying to enable metrics for local real estate consumption. It has recently acquired a data analytics firm called Realty Business Intelligence to shore up the analytics team for an undisclosed sum. It also has 3D technology integrated on its site to help home buyers view their future homes virtually.</div><div> </div><div>A few months ago, when Softbank invested $100 million in Housing.com, in December 2014, it was a celebration. The founders became the poster boys, overnight, in the property dotcom market. But then the honeymoon period lasted less than a month. It soon turned into a nightmare for everyone, the CEO Rahul Yadav and the investors included. Everyone loves gossip in India and Rahul Yadav, the former CEO of Housing, gave them a taste of it. Only this time he began attacking founders of other companies and investors. He would not specify any particular reason for his diatribe against them. Media reports add that he would call them “unethical”. He would also call them “dull” and intellectually “incapable”. However, he eventually apologised to his company’s investors and got away with it. By doing so he had become the media’s new rebel and investor activist. Hopefully after resigning he will find some time to take on the investors or partner with them to create a new company.</div><div> </div>
