HOMS explains DOJ involvement:: Homestore.com says Justice Dept requests info
(adds CFO interview, byline, previous THOUSAND OAKS)
By Sue Zeidler
LOS ANGELES, April 25 (Reuters) - Internet real estate company Homestore.com Inc. (NasdaqNM:HOMS - news) said on Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division has requested information about its business in the online realty sector.
``We think it's a matter of education about the market and providing the Department of Justice with information. We don't see anything that we've done that would create any sort of anti-trust issues,'' John Giesecke, chief financial officer of Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Homestore.com told Reuters.
``It was not unexpected from management's perspective,'' he said, adding, ``the government has recently asked several other Internet category leaders, like Yahoo and eBay for information.''
The government has not alleged any violation of law, Homestore said, adding that it believes it has complied with all laws and regulations. Homestore said it intends to cooperate with the Justice Department's request.
``We are conducting an investigation into potentially anti-competitive conduct involving the online realty listings industry,'' said Jennifer Rose, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department.
Homestore.com stock was off 2-7/8 at 18-7/8 in early afternoon trading on Nasdaq.
``To be honest, they've asked for some broad information that generally helps them to understand our business and the online real estate space. There does not seem to be any specific issue that they're targeting,'' Giesecke said.
Homestore is the largest home and real estate network on the Internet, offering users information on buying homes, finding a broker, renting and moving. It derives revenues through subscription services, advertising and e-commerce .
He said analysts predict the company will turn profitable by 2001. He also said he was comfortable with analysts' forecast of revenues to hit $140 million this year vs. $73 million in 1999.
But Giesecke said that while Homestore leads the sector, it faces formidable competition from companies like Cendant Corp. (NYSE:CD - news), Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news), Yahoo Inc. (NasdaqNM:YHOO - news) and newspapers, which are providing similar online real estate services.
``There certainly isn't any law against being No. 1 and no law against doing anything better than anyone,'' Giesecke said.
``For us to run into trouble like Microsoft has, you'd have to prove we have a monopoly and that's pretty hard to prove with all these companies in the space,'' he said.
``You'd also have to prove that we used a monopoly to harm consumers and its (our service) very much a value-add to the consumers,'' he said.
Homestore.com maintains a relationship with the National Association of Realtors, and in March, the two said they would jointly develop an Internet business-to-business network, integrating the essential steps of buying a home online.
Homestore.com on Monday announced it had attracted over 3 million users during March, a record monthly audience. The record-setting performance represents an audience twice as large as its closest competitor and a 7 percent increase over February.
The Homestore.com family of Web sites also ranked first in total site usage, as visitors spent nearly 84 million minutes on its network in March, more than four times greater than its nearest competitor, and an almost 8 percent increase over Homestore.com's February 2000 performance, the company said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
