Real estate website Move has followed a rollercoaster road to success
Like the US property market, real estate website Move’s fortunes have followed a rollercoaster path. The firm was founded by former chief executive officer Stuart Wolff under the name Homestore in the 1990s and listed in 1999.
But during the dot-com bubble, Wolff was convicted of insider trading and falsifying the company books, leading him to prison and the stock downwards. A new chief, W. Michael Long, took over in 2002 and in 2006, the year of Wolff’s conviction, the company changed its name to Move.
It moved on, too, developing more sites and hiring executives who have worked their way up through top tech firms. Last year its revenues were $227m and $29m in adjusted earnings.
Current chief executive Steven Berkowitz took the helm in 2009, having previously held a vice president role at Microsoft and served as chief executive at online search engine Ask Jeeves.
Meanwhile, chief financial officer Rachel Glaser’s CV includes 25 years of work at MyLife.com, Yahoo! and Walt Disney. They have certainly earned the thumbs up from Murdoch, who said News Corp “values the leadership team”.