Saul Klein speaks! My interview about the recent Yardi acquisition of Point2

I’m a big fan of Saul so I was hoping in my post about Yardi acquiring Point2 he would add something to the comment thread. I got better than that, he agreed to an informal interview.

One thing that struck me was how he talked about Yardi being a “software company”, not a “media company”. To me that was a direct reference to Dominion Enterprises and how they “dropped the ball” after they acquired companies like Advanced Access.

See below for the full interview:

VA:  Thanks for reaching out.  I assume you read my last post.  Anything you want to add or correct?
 
SK: Thanks Greg. The acquisition of Point2 by Yardi  will result in Point2 being able to offer more value to all of our Point2 customers…agents, brokers, MLSs, and Associations. As many may note there are apparent potential synergies and yes, lots of potential cross marketing opportunities as well. I know this is what all acquiring companies say when consolidations or acquisitions of this nature occur, but the timing is different, the market place is different, and the players are different..
 
A major consideration for anyone trying to figure out “what this all means” is the fact that, Yardi is a software company (as opposed to a media company). Point2, is also  a software company. So what you have is a  software company purchased by a software company and a resulting management team with some of the deepest and longest communication channels and relationships in the industry.
 
VA:  How big a factor was your syndication business to Yardi?
 
SK: It was a an important factor to be sure if you consider that part of the value proposition of a Point2 web site solution is syndication of listing information to, it can be argued, the largest syndication network in the real estate industry. And, it was certainly not the only factor.
 
Syndication and the ability to provide syndication services is getting interesting thanks to Move and its acquisition of Listhub. There is conversation in some circles that it may not be in the industries best interest for all syndication of MLS data to be controlled by Move. That may be one of the reasons our acquisition seems noteworthy to many. We have been and will continue to be an alternative to Listhub. Both acquisitions did nothing to change that. Some MLSs use Point2, some use Listhub, and some use both.
 
Yardi, through its acquisition of Point2, now has the ability to transform listing data received from many sources and distribute it to a broad, established and growing distribution network. It has significant market penetration on the listing side as well as on the syndication partner side. The data feeds received from MLS and distributed to web portals  and other destinations plus the technological capability to take data “from many” and distribute “to many” in a timely manner will continue to be a huge value to our customers. Think about this…Point2 can convert an MLS in less than two days. I have not talked to anyone who can do it faster at this point. And, we are working on “close to real time” syndication. Point2 continues to provide syndication assets at no cost to MLSs. Syndication will continue to evolve and grow.
 
VA: What can we expect to see now from Point2?
 
SK: Innovation. Syndication and our product offerings will continue to evolve. At Point2, we will continue to strive for the creation of an “eco-system of innovation” around the data and work to include our partner MLSs and Syndication Portals in the conversation. Look for our products to have more capability and choice and more in the future.
 
VA:  You have a strong and loyal agent business.  How will that be affected?
 
SK:   All of our customers will  have more choice, and an overall better product experience. We will be adding new training components as well.
 
VA:  Sounds like you guys are excited.  How has this process affected you personally.

SK: As you know, I have been around “the web and real estate“ since the first days of “the web and real estate.“ For me, this is right opportunity at the right time in my life with the right company and the right people at the top, with the right motivations, and equally as important, the capacity to execute. I am thrilled.