Placester Acquires Homefinder LLC to Connect Agents to Hyperlocal Markets

BOSTON, MA--(March 04, 2016) - Placester, a marketing platform that fuses technology and design to dramatically improve the home buying process for real estate professionals and consumers, today announced its acquisition of HomeFinder LLC, parent company of leading app OpenHomePro and search platform HomeFinder.com.

With this acquisition, Placester will take over HomeFinder's multi-year contracts with media companies Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI) and Tribune Publishing Co., transitioning them to Placester's Sites product for publishers, which powers the real estate sections of local newspapers. The HomeFinder platform including, Gannett, McClatchy and Tribune power 375 news sites across the U.S., including the LATimes.com, ChicagoTribune.com, Azcentral.com and MiamiHerald.com.

Placester will also acquire HomeFinder LLC's top-ranked open house management tablet app, OpenHomePro. The app provides agents the digital tools to take full advantage of open houses, by helping to collect and convert leads from open house sign-ups, automating email follow ups to guests, and promoting home showings on social media through the app's one-click sharing function. Existing Placester customers will soon have access to OpenHomePro's iOS and Android versions through Placester's app platform.

"We are excited to welcome an experienced team of mobile engineers, data scientists and marketing specialists to the Placester family," said Matt Barba, CEO and co-founder of Placester. "This team brought the real estate industry a host of valuable resources including the popular app OpenHomePro, and we can't wait to see what we can accomplish together at Placester."

About Placester

Placester fuses technology and design to dramatically improve the home buying process for consumers, brokers, and agents. Founded In 2011 by Matthew Barba, a former real estate agent, and Frederick Townes, a seasoned technologist, the Placester marketing platform provides real estate professionals with MLS integration, high-resolution visuals, responsive design, and mobile optimization, as well as lead management tools and marketing automation software for email, Facebook, Google AdWords, and other channels. Currently serving over 250,000 real estate professionals, Placester is the sole website provider for the REALTOR Benefits® Program, the official member benefits program of the National Association of REALTORS®. To date, Placester has raised $50 million in funding, and is backed by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Romulus Capital, and Techstars. For more information, please visit placester.com.