Stuart Siegel, the original founder of eNeighborhoods, Inc., has re-acquired the company from Homestore (Nasdaq: HOMS).

Homestore acquired eNeighborhoods in August 2001 as part of its purchase of iPlace, Inc. in a $151 million cash and stock deal. eNeighborhoods was founded in 1996 by Siegel and two partners (Jerry Meyer and David Meyer) and changed its name to iPlace in February 2000 after acquiring ConsumerInfo.com and QSpace. This acquisition from Homestore only includes the eNeighborhoods portion of iPlace.

eNeighborhoods was created to give real estate professionals quick and easy access to detailed information about any neighborhood in the country, including facts about schools, home values, crime rates, cost-of-living and other demographics. The tools allow real estate professionals to market their services by providing colorful, easy to understand neighborhood reports that can be printed out, emailed or linked to a website. The HomeLog eFarming feature allows for continuing contact with customers and prospects.

"We are excited about the opportunity to get eNeighborhoods back from Homestore", says Stu Siegel. "The entire eNeighborhoods Team is committed to continually enhancing the tools for our nearly 100,000 users, as well as maintaining our tradition of customer support that is second to none."

Siegel, along with Jerry Meyer and David Meyer, has founded a new company called Siegel Enterprises, Inc. (which will be known as Siegent). Siegent is now the parent company for eNeighborhoods, as well as for HomeData Corp., another recent acquisition. Says Siegel, "Siegent is the launching grounds for even more exciting products, so stay tuned."

Published: February 7, 2002

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.