It was November 2021. After a big stimulus fueled rally, the markets had started to fall once investors realized that inflation was not really as transitory as the Fed claimed. Tech stocks and “science project” companies that went public through a SPAC, were especially hard hit.
Zillow (Z) had just decided to exit its ill-fated experiment with home flipping (iBuying as it is called) and the company’s valuation had dropped below that of Opendoor (OPEN). The irony of the situation was that Opendoor was primarily focused on the very same home flipping business that had gutted Zillow’s stock.