Seattle-based real estate tech company Zillow Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ZG) on Wednesday announced co-founder Rich Barton is stepping down as CEO, effective immediately.
Jeremy Wacksman, the company's chief operating officer since February 2021, is taking over as CEO and joining the board. He has been at the company since 2009.
Barton, who led Zillow for more than 11 years between two different stints as CEO, will remain on the company's board as the co-executive chair with Lloyd Frink, another Zillow co-founder.
"This is due in no small part to the leadership of Jeremy Wacksman, with the past three years being a time of particularly impressive innovation for the company," Barton said in a release. "Lloyd and I could not be more confident in Jeremy as CEO, in the caliber of the broader team and in Zillow's bright future."
Wacksman, a 2014 40 Under 40 honoree, spent about three years at Microsoft before joining Zillow. In addition to COO, he has also served as president and chief marketing officer at Zillow.
He led Zillow Offers, the company's home-flipping business. In 2021, however, the company announced it was shuttering the iBuying platform in a move that took several quarters and resulted in layoffs affecting about a quarter of the workforce.
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Barton co-founded Zillow in 2004. He served as CEO from its founding until 2010, when fellow co-founder Spencer Rascoff took the role. When Rascoff stepped down in 2019, Barton assumed the CEO duties again.
Barton also founded big-name companies like Expedia and Glassdoor.
"I love this company and its mission, and I am honored to lead our extraordinary team into the next phase of Zillow's growth," Wacksman said in a release.
Zillow offers a home and rental search tool, mortgages and a platform for partner agents called Premier Agent. The company generated $572 million in revenue during the second quarter, up 13% year over year.
In a note posted on LinkedIn, Barton said most of the company was already centered around Wacksman as COO. Barton added that Wacksman had been crucial to multiple recent acquisitions.
In 2021, Zillow acquired ShowingTime, a tool that allows agents to schedule and manage listings, for $500 million. In June, it reached a preliminary settlement around ShowingTime with two multiple listing services, plus an MLS consortium, in an antitrust suit Zillow filed last year.
In 2022, Zillow acquired the real estate marketing company VRX Media for an undisclosed amount. And last December, the company closed its acquisition of Follow Up Boss, a software system for real estate agents, for $400 million cash upfront and up to $100 million in cash earnout.
Zillow has felt the strain of higher interest rates and decreased homebuying demand. It laid off about 300 workers in October 2022. In June of last year, the company decided to shutter its title and escrow service Zillow Closing Services. The move eliminated about 80 jobs at Zillow.
