SEATTLE—Zillow Inc. said Tuesday afternoon it had completed its $2.5-billion acquisition of Trulia Inc. in a stock-for-stock transaction. Simultaneously, the Seattle based company formed Zillow Group Inc., an umbrella for its online real estate and home-related brands. Shares of Zillow Grioup stock are expected to begin trading Wednesday under the same Z ticker used by its predecessor, Zillow Inc.

Calling it “a pivotal day” for online real estate, Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff says that each of the group's brands offers “a consumer-first philosophy.” Along with giving renters and buyers “essential information” to make critical decisions, he says the combination “will also enable real estate professionals to more efficiently and easily reach the nation's largest audience of engaged buyers, sellers and homeowners, and extract even more value from their advertising."

Paul Levine, previously Trulia's COO, has been named president of Trulia, reporting to Rascoff. Pete Flint, co-founder and former CEO of Trulia, has joined the Zillow Group board of directors, as has former Trulia board member Greg Waldorf. Flint was initially expected to remain as Trulia CEO when the deal was first announced this past July.

At the time, Rascoff said that both Zillow and Trulia had been “enormously successful in creating compelling consumer brands and deep industry partnerships, but it's still early days in the world of real estate advertising on mobile and Web.” Zillow noted that he majority of advertising dollars in the real estate sector have yet to migrate online or to mobile; as evidence, the two companies' combined revenue currently represents less than 4% of the estimated $12 billion real estate professionals spend on marketing their services to consumers each year.

Zillow intends to provide pro forma results for the year that ended Dec. 31 ahead of its first-quarter financial report, tentatively planned for May. Later this year, Zillow Group expects to begin to offer shared services and marketing platforms for advertisers and industry partners, intended to enhance efficiency and deliver greater ROI.

In connection with the close of the Trulia acquisition, the two companies have eliminated 280 positions, primarily due to redundancy and located mainly in San Francisco and Bellevue, WA. Another 70 positions will be eliminated as Q2 ends, giving Zillow Group approximately 2,000 employees.