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In an Inman Exclusive, Taylor Anderson examined thousands of internal documents to unveil the legal strategies on both sides of the Compass-Zillow wrangling.

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All eyes were on Compass last week as the brokerage completed its giant merger with Anywhere. Beyond that massive change, though, lies its legal wrangle with Zillow over private listings.

Last week, Inman’s Taylor Anderson delved into a trove of documents submitted as part of the discovery process in the ongoing battle. There, he uncovered the goals and concerns behind both real estate behemoths’ legal strategies.

‘No listings, no eyeballs, no sales’: Zillow docs outline plans to win the private listing battle by Taylor Anderson

The documents, which Inman staff began reviewing once they became available through the court filing system, included deposition transcripts, internal messages, strategy documents and written materials that offer insight into Zillow’s tactics, including its efforts to hold onto its source of revenue-generating listings.

“Listings are the lifeblood of our company. No listings, no eyeballs, no sales,” Errol Samuelson, chief industry development officer at Zillow, said in one message.

The documents also reveal the names of industry insiders Zillow recruited to help it win the messaging war, as well as those it considered unlikely to support its viewpoint.

Docs offer inside peek at Compass’ war against ‘organized real estate’ by Taylor Anderson

In Compass’ document drop, the focus was on the brokerage’s attempt to push back against what it considered “organized real estate,” which encompassed the National Association of Realtors, multiple listing services and Zillow. Compass indicated that those entities work to control how real estate agents conduct their businesses, and that the only way to circumvent them was through growth.

“If we had twice the market share in all of our markets, you can’t bully us anymore,” CEO Robert Reffkin said in a May 13 call with Compass sales leaders and brokers of record, a preview of the thinking that would eventually lead to the Compass-Anywhere merger.

Now that the Compass-Anywhere merger is finalized (see next), Compass’s industry impact and influence are only poised to grow from here. Learn more about all things Compass, portals and more, with coverage from both contributors and staff writers.

The deal is done: Compass and Anywhere have officially merged

Less than four months after two of the biggest companies in real estate announced a planned merger, the firms closed the $1.6 billion deal on Friday, raising questions about an industry race to M&A.

IDX reform is the real fight no one wants to have

Josh Ries examines why the system designed to help agents quietly handed control to third party portals and how we can take it back.

CoStar plans to slash spending on Homes.com through 2030

After investing heavily to create a fourth competing major real estate search portal, CoStar said Wednesday that it would cut spending on Homes.com by 35 percent this year.

The Download is a column in which Inman’s Christy Murdock takes a deeper look at the top-read stories of the past week to give you what you’ll need to meet Monday head-on.

Email Christy Murdock

Topics: Compass | Robert Reffkin | Zillow Show Comments Hide Comments Sign up for Inman’s Morning Headlines What you need to know to start your day with all the latest industry developments Sign me up By submitting your email address, you agree to receive marketing emails from Inman. Success! Thank you for subscribing to Morning Headlines. Read Next words of the year