Ten-X Commercial, an online real estate transaction platform, laid off half its workforce after efforts to sell the company fell through.
Close to 100 employees in offices in Texas, New York and California were given notice on Monday morning during a call with executives, according to people on the call and those familiar with the matter.
Thomas H. Lee Partners, the private equity firm that owns Ten-X Commercial, has been trying to sell the company since the start of the year. CoStar Group had been in talks for a potential acquisition until recently, according to former Ten-X employees.
Thomas H. Lee Partners declined to comment. Ten-X and CoStar did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Ten-X says that more than $50 billion in real estate transactions have been conducted through its marketplace. It was founded in 2007 as Auction.com, a residential real estate deal platform. In 2016, it launched a separate platform known as Ten-X Commercial, which provided a marketplace for commercial properties. Along the way, it received investments from multiple firms, including Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital, Stone Point and CapitalG.
In 2017, Thomas H. Lee Partners purchased a majority interest in Ten-X for close to $1.6 billion. The private equity firm quickly set about separating the two products — Auction.com and Ten-X Commercial — into siloed companies. Shortly after, Ten-X Commercial cut about 10 percent of its staff in early 2018.
Since the private equity firm began marketing Ten-X earlier this year, it attracted multiple suitors, including Newmark Knight Frank. Newmark declined to comment.