Zoopla buys ThinkProperty

Zoopla announced this morning that it has bought Thinkproperty.com from Guardian Media Group (GMG) for "an undisclosed sum".
It was recently rumored that Zoopla was "in advanced talks to purchase the PropertyFinder Group,", but that announcement may have been a smokescreen. In an interview with Simon Baker, Zoopla CEO Alex Chesterman mentioned he expected to see more consolidation in the industry as it "makes sense."
In regards to the ThinkProperty acquisition, Chesterman is said to be "delighted" that Zoopla is "leading the latest round of consolidation in this market". Chesterman claims that the ThinkProperty acquisition reinforces Zoopla's ability to deliver value to estate agents by helping them increase their exposure to a wider audience. The ThinkProperty deal makes Zoopla the the exclusive property search partner on the Guardian.co.uk according to the statement released this morning.
And with reported monthly visits now approaching 30 million, Guardian.co.uk is the UK's biggest national newspaper website. In February 2009, Zoopla was ranked the UK's no. 5 property related website by comscore, with just under 500,000 monthly visits. According to this morning's statement, ThinkProperty's current traffic is just over 200,000 unique users per month.

• Related post: Innerviews with zoopla's Alex Chesterman