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Jeremy Wacksman, left, was named Zillow Group CEO on Wednesday, succeeding co-founder Rich Barton, right, who will become co-executive chair. (Zillow Group Photos)
Zillow Group named a new CEO, longtime company executive Jeremy Wacksman, announcing that co-founder and two-time CEO Rich Barton will be shifting to the new role of co-executive chair of the real estate media and technology company, joining co-founder Lloyd Frink in the role.
Wacksman, 47, with a background in both engineering and business, is a veteran of companies including Microsoft and Procter & Gamble who has been at Zillow Group for more than 15 years, serving in roles as chief marketing officer, president of the company’s flagship Zillow brand, and since early 2021 as its chief operating officer.
In an interview on the GeekWire Podcast about the transition, Barton said the company has been preparing for this leadership transition since starting to organize much of the company around Wacksman three years ago.
At the same time, Zillow has been repositioning itself as a housing “Super App” that integrates services for home buying, selling, and renting, effectively digitizing key parts of the real estate process, and helping people move.
“The strategy is working really well,” Barton said. “The business is in great shape. The top line is growing nicely. The profits are growing nicely. The outlook is good. So the sun is out, and that is the time to make these kinds of moves. I couldn’t be more excited by what’s going on.”
Wacksman, joining Barton on the podcast, said he plans to stay the course as CEO.
“This is a reflection that things are working, and that we’re excited to now continue to grow and continue to deliver against what we’ve been doing, which is the result of the last couple years of hard work during what’s been a really challenging macro-environment,” Wacksman said.
Among other things, Wacksman and Barton are both big believers in the benefits of remote work.
Although the company’s largest office is in Seattle, Zillow transitioned fully to a remote-first approach during the pandemic and considers the cloud, not Seattle, its headquarters. The company has employees in all 50 states, Wacksman said, and more than half of its workforce lives more than 50 miles from their office spaces.
The CEO transition came as Zillow Group announced second-quarter revenue of $572 million, up 13%. The company said it was the eighth consecutive quarter that its results have outperformed the residential real estate industry.
Zillow Group posted $134 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, due primarily to higher-than expected residential revenue. The company’s net loss for the second quarter was $17 million on a GAAP basis, an improvement over the $35 million net loss posted in the same quarter a year ago.
Zillow stock was up more than 12% in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
Barton, 57, said he will remain involved in Zillow Group to support Wacksman and the leadership team, but plans to take the extra time focus his energies on other boards and responsibilities. Barton is a board member at Netflix, Qurate Retail Group, and Artsy.
The announcement concludes Barton’s second stint as Zillow Group CEO, five years after he returned in 2019 to lead the company through what was then an ambitious plan to double down on the business of buying and selling homes.
As it turned out, Barton ended up discontinuing the Zillow Offers business in 2021, recognizing the realities of the market well before many similar “iBuying” ventures pulled the plug. It was a difficult process that included laying off 2,000 people, or 25% of the company, but gave Zillow room for another reinvention.
A serial entrepreneur known for his role in founding companies including Expedia, Glassdoor, and Trover, he said he doesn’t plan to start another company.
Referencing a teaser page that he and Frink posted when starting Zillow almost 20 years ago, inviting people to join them in a revolution, he said, “You won’t see any mysterious web pages from me.”
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