Zillow vs. RealEstate.com?

I found it curious that IAC/InterActive Corp.'s RealEstate.com unit chose the Pacific Northwest to test the waters for its new real estate brokerage business, a story that was reported by Bloomberg News, The Wall Street Journal and Inman News this week.

The reason the story interested me is that it could potentially lead to a face off or some interesting cooperation between IAC/InterActive Corp.'s Barry Diller and Zillow Chief Executive Rich Barton.

As the former CEO of Bellevue-based Expedia, Barton previously reported to Diller. He launched Zillow -- a highly-secretive Seattle online real estate startup -- late last year.

Given the widely reported clashes between Barton and Diller, I would guess the two executives will not be working together to conquer the real estate world.

Here's a great overview of the rocky relationship as reported by BusinessWeek earlier this month.

"Diller inherited a crack team at Expedia, headed by Barton. In 2002, shortly after buying his first company, Diller lauded Barton for transforming an industry. He even went so far as to describe Barton as a latter-day Henry Ford," reports BusinessWeek. "Yet the two often clashed. And when Diller, over employees' objections, imposed a policy eliminating Expedia stock options on Jan. 1, 2003, Barton had had enough."

I asked Barton earlier this year if he anticipated any issues with IAC, such as violating "non-compete agreements." Barton -- who resigned from the IAC board in February -- said he did not and that any non-compete was limited to the travel industry.

I also asked him about the business models of low-cost brokerage firms such as ZipRealty. Barton said the brokerage model was not an idea Zillow would pursue.

Here's a story I did on Barton when he first started Zillow and another story when a few more details leaked out.

But for now, Zillow's intentions in the multi-billion dollar real estate industry remain a mystery.