HomeStore.com in Deal to Expand Web Presence

Home-Store.com Inc. said it is forming the Web’s No. 1 commercial real estate database through an alliance with LoopNet Inc., a company that lists $18 billion worth of properties. HomeStore.com, which operates a group of Web sites that list home and commercial properties, watched its stock shoot up Wednesday by more $7 a share before it closed at $68 on Nasdaq, up $2.75. Terms of the alliance were not disclosed, but in a prepared statement, HomeStore.com said it did the deal through one of its units that already had a major stake in LoopNet. A HomeStore official said the expanded commercial real estate listings will be available at https://www.commercialsource.com, which is one of Thousand Oaks-based HomeStore’s existing Web sites. Under the agreement, San Francisco-based LoopNet will operate CommercialSource.com, which represents the National Assn. of Realtors, HomeStore said. Brokers will be able to do business via the new database for free, the association said in a separate statement.