A Gallon of Gas or a Share of Move Inc.?

The stock price of Realtor.com's parent company, Move Inc., closed at $2.28 per share in regular trading Tuesday, down 2 cents from the previous day. On Oct. 22 the company's price per share dipped to $2.20, the lowest level since March 21, 2005.

These days, it's more expensive to buy a gallon of gas than to purchase a share of stock in some real estate-related companies. The U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports that the average retail gas price per gallon was $3.06 as of Dec. 3. Compare that to Move Inc.'s $2.28 per share and home builder Standard Pacific's stock price of $2.99 per share at the close of regular trading today.

Rick Aristotle Munarriz, writing for The Motley Fool last month, noted that Internet-based real estate companies such as Move, ZipRealty and HouseValues have been hammered lately on Wall Street, with lackluster earnings, though he said that investors may see light at the end of the tunnel: "all three companies have balance sheets that are flush with greenbacks. In short, these may be ugly homes, but they're cheap and they have strong foundations. Investors who relish fixer-upper market opportunities might find something worth pursuing."

Is Move ripe for acquisition? The company hasn't announced any plans to sell. And Move Inc.'s operating contract requires that the National Association of Realtors' leadership would also need to consider approval of any such deal. Sramana Mitra, a Silicon Valley strategy consultant, suggested in a July blog post that Move could be an acquisition target.

She wrote: "We have reviewed the online real estate market in detail, and it is a vibrant segment. We have also reviewed Move’s feature-functions which are OK, although nothing exceptional. The valuation on the company is a rather affordable $620 Million, pegging this as yet another potential acquisition for an Internet conglomerate like Yahoo, NewsCorp, or IAC, or even for a new one in the making via private equity intervention or a public company roll-up." Could this/would this ever happen?

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