LONDON: UK online property website Rightmove today said it had rejected a multi-billion-pound takeover bid from Australian peer REA Group, majority owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire.
Rightmove said in a statement that the cash and shares offer, worth £5.6 billion (US$7.3 billion), “was wholly opportunistic and fundamentally undervalued” the company.
REA made public its interest in Rightmove on Sept 2, noting “clear similarities” between the pair “in terms of their leading market positions in the core residential business”.
Sector watchers said REA could be attracted by the prospect of more interest rate cuts in Britain which would lower mortgage costs for buyers, as well as by the new government’s plans for mass housebuilding.