Reps of both companies declined to comment on talk of a potential deal, but the chatter had Douglas Elliman’s price per share up 34.5 percent over the past five days.
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Just weeks after hiring a new M&A executive, Anywhere Real Estate Inc. is rumored to have offered a merger deal with Douglas Elliman Inc. that would give the firm’s share price a nice boost.
The news came in just before the holiday weekend on Friday, Bloomberg reported, via sources who are said to have knowledge of the potential deal.
The offer reportedly would value the boutique luxury firm at around $4 per share, which is lower than what Douglas Elliman would be likely to accept, according to one of Bloomberg’s sources.
Representatives for Anywhere and Douglas Elliman declined to comment on the speculative news. Still, the whisperings of a potential deal were enough to send Douglas Elliman’s stock price on an upward climb. The firm’s price per share rose by more than 35 percent on Friday and closed trading for the week at $2.90. By market’s close on Tuesday, shares rose even further to $3.
Douglas Elliman, which is headquartered in New York City, has a strong foothold on the East Coast and in recent years, has expanded its business to Texas and a handful of Western states, including California, Colorado and Nevada. The firm prides itself on its new development marketing and is the brokerage of record for notable celebrity agents like Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes of the Eklund | Gomes Team and Matt, Josh and Heather Altman of the Altman Brothers Team.
Douglas Elliman has gone through a bit of a rough patch in recent years, facing a string of losses as reported in quarterly earnings. Losses have improved in recent quarters, however, with the firm’s net loss lowering to $6 million during the first quarter of 2025, compared to $42 million during the same period the previous year. The fourth quarter of 2024 was the first full quarter during which new CEO Michael S. Liebowitz was at the helm, and Liebowitz has sought to frame this period as a new era for Douglas Elliman.
In the fall, former CEO, President and Chairman of the Board Howard Lorber said he was retiring from his positions at the company, but it was subsequently reported by The Wall Street Journal that he was pressured to step down amid growing scrutiny over the firm’s culture. About a week later, Scott Durkin was also terminated from his position as president and CEO of the firm’s brokerage arm.
The departures came after a vocal investor, Bradley Tirpak, called into question Lorber’s leadership last summer because of the firm’s declining financial state, and because of his alleged failures in oversight regarding now-disgraced former top brokers Tal and Oren Alexander, who broke off from the firm in 2022 to found Official Partners backed by Side.
A series of lawsuits and reporting brought to light that the brothers had been accused by multiple women (including Elliman agents) of sexual assault — an allegation that one Elliman agent, Jessica Cohen, claimed she had told Lorber about in confidence in 2012. Lorber also underwent a five-hour-long internal probe, during which time he acknowledged that, while CEO, he had engaged in intimate relationships with two Elliman brokers, Jennine Gourin and Jessica Cohen.
Elliman has asserted that no formal HR complaint was filed against the Alexander brothers during their roughly 10-year tenure at the brokerage.
At that time, Elliman representatives said in a statement emailed to Inman, “Douglas Elliman notes that the former brokers accused of sexual assault left the Company more than two years ago, and there were no complaints against them when they were at the Company nor was there any concealment or preferential treatment with respect to those brokers.”
Just days after Lorber’s retirement announcement, Elliman’s stock price started to rebound. The day of the announcement, the company’s stock price was at $1.43. Three days later, it had increased to $1.81.
At a stock price per share of $3, Elliman’s market cap grows to about $266.21 million. In 2021, the firm’s market cap reached $900 million. Anywhere’s market cap is currently $379.58 million.
Meanwhile, Anywhere’s stock price was $3.40 at market close on Friday, about 4 percent higher than it started that day, and roughly held steady on Tuesday.
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