primary sources . please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources . september 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message lendingtree type public traded as nasdaq tree founded charlotte north carolina usa 1996 headquarters 11115 rushmore drive charlotte north carolina 28277 united states key people doug lebda ceo founder employees 300 2016 website www.lendingtree.com original logo used from 1998 until 2009 . lendingtree is an online lending exchange that connects consumers with multiple lenders banks and credit partners who compete for business . lendingtree is not a direct supplier of loans ; it is instead a broker . since being founded in 1998 lendingtree has facilitated more than 32 million loan requests citation needed . it is headquartered in charlotte north carolina . lendingtree also provides financing tools comparative loan searches and borrowing information . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 founding 1.2 growth 2 references history edit founding edit after graduating from bucknell university doug lebda went to work for pricewaterhousecoopers in pittsburgh as an auditor and consultant . when he decided to purchase his first home and obtain a mortgage he found the process of visiting multiple banks and combing through mortgage offers frustrating time consuming and exhausting . lebda realized that if the process was that difficult for someone with his financial acumen then there must be a massive market of others with the same desire for a better way . with this idea doug founded creditsource usa in 1996 with jamey bennett whom he knew from bucknell and had previous experience founding bookwire . the new company was later rebranded as lendingtree and by 1998 lendingtree launched nationally online with its headquarters based in charlotte nc . 2 growth edit lendingtree went through a successful ipo on february 15 2000 . bennett would leave lendingtree after the ipo . in may 2003 lendingtree llc was acquired by iac interactivecorp former owner of ticketmaster home shopping network and current owner of match.com . in 2004 lendingtree acquired homeloancenter.com and formed lendingtree loans . citation needed after 5 years lendingtree spun off from iac to join newly established tree.com inc. tree.com is now the parent company of several brands and businesses in the financial services and real estate industries including lendingtree.com ; getsmart.com ; degreetree.com ; lendingtreeautos.com ; and doneright.com . 3 in 2015 lendingtree disassembled the tree.com umbrella to focus on its core brand lendingtree which now incorporates business loans personal loans debt consolidation free credit scores and student loans along with its core mortgage products home loans mortgage refinance and home equity . 4 references edit http finance.yahoo.com news lendingtree reinvents borrowers shop money 133000433.html http www.cnbc.com id 101880924 . our roots timeline . lendingtree.com . pr newswire this article about a financial services corporation of the united states is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title lendingtree & oldid 743892433 categories companies based in charlotte north carolinafinancial services companies of the united statesinternet properties established in 1998united states financial services company stubshidden categories articles lacking reliable references from september 2014all articles lacking reliable referencesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from september 2014all stub articles 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 11 october 2016 at 21 38 . 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 wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view