News Corp. to buy Move Inc. for about $950M

News Corp, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Tuesday it bought real estate information company Move Inc. for $950 million, an effort to expand its property listings business to diversify revenue sources.

REA Group Limited – the operator of Australian residential property website, realestate.com.au that is 61.6% owned by News Corp – plans to hold a 20% stake in Move, while News Corp will own the rest.

Move has access to more than 800 multiple listing services across the country and lists for-sale properties through its sites Realtor.com, Move.com and related mobile apps, the company said.

Having surrendered much of their local classified advertising business to Craigslist and other free or low-cost websites, publishing companies are increasingly turning their focus on regaining or shoring up their ad listings units that generate per-transaction revenues.

In August, Gannett, publisher of Paste BN and 81 other newspapers, announced it will buy the shares of car buying site Cars.com that it doesn't already own – 73% of the company – for $1.8 billion. Gannett also plans to separate its publishing business from the TV and digital assets, which includes CareerBuilder.com.

News Corp will pay $21 per share in cash for all outstanding shares of Move, and the price is 37% higher than Move's Monday closing stock price. REA will pay $200 million for the 20% stake it plans to own. The deal has been approved by Move's board of directors.

"This acquisition will accelerate News Corp's digital and global expansion and contribute to the transformation of our company, making online real estate a powerful pillar of our portfolio," said News Corp CEO Robert Thomson, in a statement.

The National Association of Realtors, the largest trade association of real estate agents and owner of multiple listing services, has an exclusive relationship with Move in listing its properties on Realtor.com. The association has given its consent to the acquisition, News Corp said.