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ews Corp's subsidiary, REA Group, has expressed interest in acquiring Rightmove, the largest real estate portal in the UK. The company behind Realtor.com has not disclosed the exact amount it would be willing to pay for Rightmove, which saw its shares surge by 20% after REA's declaration of interest. The acquisition would be subject to British law, giving REA until September 30th to make a move.

    REA Group operates in Australia, Asia, and North America, but does not have any Europe-specific brands listed on its website. Some of its well-known entities include Simpology in Australia, PropertyGuru in Asia, and Realtor.com in North America.

    REA's biggest competitor in the portal space is Andy Florance's CoStar Group, which has also been making inroads in Europe. This year, CoStar acquired Rightmove rival OnTheMarket for $126 million.

    Both CoStar and Realtor.com lag behind Zillow in terms of market share of monthly user visits, but Realtor.com's presence outside of North America is more limited.

    The platform wars in the real estate industry have been a topic of interest for years. CoStar recently declared that traffic to its subsidiary Homes.com was closing in on Zillow after a big advertising push that included four Super Bowl commercials.

    Last year, CoStar considered acquiring Move, Inc., the parent company of Realtor.com, but the potential $3 billion acquisition fell apart in February.