CoStar Group / CSGP

About CoStar Group

2 Bethesda Metro Center, 10th Floor, Bethesda, Md. 20814
www.costar.com | 301-215-8300 | Founded: 1987

Industry: Media/Data | Category: Public Companies

Company founder Andrew C. Florance, son of noted Washington architect Colden "Coke" Florance, came up with the concept for CoStar while he was still in college. He was creating financial software for real estate developers when he saw a void. While stockbrokers nationwide had vast amounts of information to consult before making decisions, commercial real estate brokers had little data on office buildings. Florance launched his business in the basement of his parents' home.
After developing the business into one that relied on a substantial desktop database system, Florance took the company public in 1998 and was tracking about 65 commercial markets by 2005. The switch in 2003 to an Internet-based information platform played a big role in increasing revenue, the company said; it had its first profit that year.
In 2005, its third-quarter profit fell to $1.1 million from $2.4 million because of a $2.2 million restructuring charge for closing an office in Mason, Ohio, but revenue for the year was up 19.9 percent over a year earlier.
Early this year the company completed an expansion into 21 new U.S. markets than had begun in May 2004. It hopes to add about six cities this year.
The firm has exported 100 research jobs to India and the Philippines and expects to do more outsourcing.
It opened a new research and sales office in Columbia last year for about 175 employees.
The next big initiative is aimed at the retail property sector. In January 2005, CoStar paid $4.1 million in cash for the National Research Bureau, the leading provider of property information to the shopping-center industry. In addition, the company began tracking retail property as part of its market expansion, which, according to one analyst, has essentially doubled the firm's database. CoStar tracks more than 35 billion square feet of commercial real estate nationwide. It is planning to launch a retail service this month designed for retailers, retail brokers and owners.
Last November, the firm began offering CoStar Commercial MLS, which has more than 100,000 national for-sale listings online. As of late February, more than 17,000 people had registered to use it.

President and CEO: Andrew C. Florance

2005 Financial Data

Revenues: $134,338,000 | Net Income: $6,457,000
Asssets: $248,059,000 | Earnings Per Share: $0.34
Total employees: 1,076 | Local employees: 558