Keep pulling the thread on CoStar Group.
CoStar Group reported its 59th consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth, a streak maintained through the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 interest rate hike cycle.
CoStar Group holds $2 billion in cash net of debt and achieves nearly 50% profit margins on its core business.
Over the last five years, CoStar Group has invested approximately $5 billion into its consumer-facing real estate website, Homes.com, to compete with Zillow and Realtor.com.
Activist investor Third Point, led by Dan Loeb, published an open letter in January 2026 calling for a board overhaul at CoStar Group and a reduction in its residential spending.
CoStar Group's competitive moat is built on 37 years of proprietary data collection, which would require billions of dollars and many years for a competitor to replicate.
CoStar Group estimates its current penetration of the global total addressable market for professional commercial real estate data is between 3% and 4%.
CoStar Group management states that one of the biggest drivers of annual churn is customers going out of business, not switching to competitors.
In 2014, CoStar Group acquired Apartments.com for approximately $585 million.
Apartments.com currently generates approximately $1.2 billion in annual revenue for CoStar Group.
Over the last three years, CoStar Group's operating profits have fallen from nearly $500 million to a loss of $72 million in fiscal year 2025.
CoStar Group has invested over $1 billion in marketing for Homes.com.
Zillow's co-founder Spencer Rascoff believes a ban on commission sharing would put $1.5 billion of Zillow's revenue at risk.