LoopNet is an online marketplace for

commercial property Commercial property, also called commercial real estate, investment property or income property, is real estate (buildings or land) intended to generate a profit, either from capital gains or rental income. Commercial property includes office b ...

, primarily providing commercial property listings for sale and for lease in the United States and is currently owned by commercial property data company

CoStar Group CoStar Group, Inc. is a Washington, DC-based provider of information, analytics and marketing services to the commercial property industry in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Spain. Founded in 1987 by Andrew C. ...

History

LoopNet was founded in 1995 by Dennis DeAndre. Working alongside engineer Steve Midgley, the two built LoopNet into the internet's largest commercial real estate listing service. LoopNet underwent three rounds of private venture capital financing in 1997 (Indo Suez), 1998 (Trinity Capital & Partners) and $20 million in 1999 from fourT5 real estate brokers. LoopNet was an early venture in Internet-based user-created content. As early as October 1996 virtually all of its commercial property listings were being entered by its users directly. Over time, LoopNet added the capability to import listings in an automated manner. In 2001, the company merged with PropertyFirst.com. In June 2006, the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

. At that time, the company had 360,000 commercial properties for sale or lease. LoopNet acquired BizBuySell (2004), CityFeet (2007), REApps (2008), Land & Farm/Lands of America (2008) and Bizquest (2010). In April 2012, CoStar Group acquired LoopNet for approximately $860 million in cash and stock. In 2014, the company settled a

trademark infringement Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attached to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees (provided that such authorization was within the scope of the licence). Infringement may ...

lawsuit that it brought against

Dotloop Zillow Group, Inc., or simply Zillow, is an American tech real-estate marketplace company that was founded in 2006, and was created by Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink, former Microsoft executives and founders of Microsoft spin-off Expedia; Spencer R ...

. In 2020, to address rapid changes occurring in the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

commercial real estate market, the company added significant virtual tour capabilities.

Business

Loopnet connects sellers with buyers over an open and free network. As of April 2022, LoopNet had more than 8 million registered members and over 11 million unique monthly visitors. LoopNet's business model involves selling memberships to its site. Paid or Premium Membership confers additional benefits.Best Stock for 2008: LoopNet
Motley Fool, December 31, 2007

Legal issues

In '' CoStar Group, Inc. v. LoopNet, Inc.'' (2006), in which Loopnet prevailed, it was determined that Loopnet, as an operator of a

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Wi ...

, was no different from Netcom, then an

internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...

, and was not responsible for

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

s by its users. This ruling established

precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...

for copyright liability protection for many websites. It followed the ''

Religious Technology Center v. Netcom ''Religious Technology Center v. Netcom (USA), Netcom On-Line Communication Services, Inc.'', 907 F. Supp. 1361 (N.D. Cal. 1995), is a United States district court, U.S. district court case about whether the operator of a computer bulletin board se ...

'' case (better known as

Scientology vs. the Internet There are a number of disputes concerning the Church of Scientology's attempts to suppress material critical of Scientology on the Internet, utilizing various methods primarily lawsuits and legal threats, as well as front organizations. In la ...

). LoopNet demonstrated that it policed any user violations after the fact. The court did not require the company to stop future violations before they occur. Such a ruling could have effectively shut down LoopNet's website as well as those of many

application service provider An application service provider (ASP) is a business providing application software generally through the Web. The ASP model The application software resides on the vendor's system and is accessed by users through a communication protocol. Alter ...

s. CoStar unsuccessfully argued that LoopNet was an active party to the violations and thereby guilty of

References

External links

* {{Online real estate databases 2006 initial public offerings 2012 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in San Francisco Online real estate databases Real estate companies established in 1995 Real estate services companies of the United States