Zillow to lay off 25% of its workforce and shutter house-flipping service
CBSN
Zillow said Tuesday it is laying off a quarter of the real estate firm's 6,400 employees as it shuts down the company's house-flipping operation, a painful setback for a player that has sought to expand its role linking property buyers and sellers.
In a statement explaining the abrupt move to pull the plug on the side business, called Zillow Offers, CEO Rich Barton said "the unpredictability in forecasting home prices far exceeds what we anticipated." As a result, continuing to grow Zillow Offers "would result in too much earnings and balance-sheet volatility," he added.
In a tweet, Barton also said the decision was "difficult, but necessary."
Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday said it will consider the constitutionality of the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund, agreeing to review a lower court decision that upended the mechanism for funding programs that provide communications services to rural areas, low-income communities and schools, libraries and hospitals.
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched six space tourists on a high-speed dash to the edge of space and back Friday, giving the passengers — including a husband and wife making their second flight — about three minutes of weightlessness and an out-of-this world view before the capsule made a parachute descent to touchdown at the company's west Texas flight facility.