industry technology founded 1995 headquarters san francisco california usa website www.loopnet.com loopnet is the most heavily trafficked commercial real estate marketplace online with more than 8 million registered members and 5 million unique monthly visitors . 1 its primary business is to provide commercial real estate listings for sale and for lease in the united states . in april 2012 loopnet became a subsidiary of costar group inc. 2 contents 1 history 2 business 3 legal issues 4 rebranding 5 references 6 external links history edit loopnet was founded and funded in 1995 by dennis deandre . working alongside steve midgley loopnet s engineer deandre and midgley built loopnet into the internet s largest commercial real estate listing service . loopnet then underwent three rounds of private venture capital financing in 1997 indo suez 1998 trinity capital & partners and 1999 multi party investment . 3 by 2003 it is reported to have become profitable and by 2006 it was able to float shares in an initial public offering . in april 2011 costar group inc. announced an agreement to acquire loopnet for about 860 million in cash and stock . 4 the acquisition was finalized on april 30 2012 . 5 as with many internet sites the site offered the bulk of its services at no cost until it built its viewer base . business edit loopnet was an early venture in internet based user created content . as early as october 1996 virtually all of its commercial property listings were being entered by its users directly . over time loopnet added the capability to import listings in an automated manner . but the core principles of its business connecting sellers with buyers over an open and free network have remained unchanged to the present day . 6 loopnet s current business model involves selling memberships to its site . paid or premium membership confers benefits that free non members do not enjoy . this revenue model was launched in q4 2001 and loopnet was one of the first internet companies to successfully launch and scale a so called freemium model for its services . in 2008 loopnet for the first time introduced a tiered pricing structure for its memberships . 7 legal issues edit loopnet is also notable for having been sued by competitor costar group and for the resulting rulings and case law . costar ultimately acquired loopnet in april 2012 . prior to that time the various rulings established important clarification of the dmca and earlier cases . the case itself has become known for establishing new case law in the area of isp responsibilities for user created content . an additional brief summary of the case to date can be found on the electronic frontier foundation s website . 8 the case followed close on the heels of the relatively better known cos v netcom case better known as scientology vs. the internet though loopnet s case has since become a protracted legal battle between the two rival companies apparently concluding in a final appellate ruling in 2006 almost 9 years after the original action was filed . loopnet was successfully able to adopt a defense that asserted that as an operator of an internet website it was no different from netcom at the time a dial up internet connectivity provider and was therefore only a by stander to the copyright violations of its user base . this ruling has provided crucial precedent and copyright liability protection for vast numbers of similar websites since . loopnet was able to show that it already policed any user violations after the fact and was able to avoid being required by the court to stop future violations before they occur such a ruling could have effectively shut down loopnet s website and opened the door to many more internet asp s being similarly shut down by the courts . costar unsuccessfully argued that loopnet was an active party to the violations and therefore guilty itself of copyright violation . rebranding edit as part of a greater costar rebranding loopnet released a new logo on its website in may 2014 . loopnet logo 1995 2014 references edit according to april 2012 google analytics data costar press release on closure of loopnet acquisition april 2012 red herring article 2000 reuters.com costar group to buy loopnet for 860 mln costar press release on closure of loopnet acquisition ny times discussion of loopnet s business context best stock for 2008 loopnet motley fool december 31 2007 costar v. loopnet electronic frontier foundation external links edit loopnet loopnet products bizbuysell.com acquired by dennis deandre and loopnet 2004 cityfeet.com acquired by loopnet 2007 buildingsearch landandfarm.com acquired by loopnet 2008 reapplications acquired by loopnet 2008 bizquest.com acquired by loopnet 2010 landsofamerica.com acquired by loopnet 2010 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title loopnet & oldid 743699172 categories real estate services companies of the united statescompanies based in san franciscocompanies established in 1995online real estate databaseshidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 19 42 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about 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