Rocket’s $1.75B deal to buy Redfin amps up competition with Zillow

• The deal will amp up competition with fellow Seattle real estate giant Zillow. Just last month, we speculated whether Zillow could acquire Redfin. 

• "Once the deal closes, Rocket and Redfin will form a technology company with the national scale of a lender, brokerage, title company and home-search site,” Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman wrote in an email posted to the company’s blog.

Veteran tech leader Dawn Lepore is the new board chair at Seattle-based customer data startup Amperity. Lepore has held board positions at eBay, Walmart, The New York Times, and AOL, and previously led Charles Schwab’s technology efforts. Read more.

Vote for Next Tech Titan: Startups riding their success to the next level are vying for this 2025 GeekWire Award. They include Echodyne, Pulumi, Read AI, Statsig and Truveta. Read more.

• See the complete list of finalists across nine categories as we honor the top innovators and companies in Seattle and Pacific Northwest tech.

• Join us for the annual event, April 30 in Seattle. Get tickets.

Seattle venture firm Graham & Walker is raising its second fund according to a new SEC filing. Launched in 2017 by CEO Leslie Feinzaig, the firm invests in early stage tech companies. Read more.

Staffers were laid off at Seattle-based Zonar Systems, a fleet management software company that was recently acquired by GPS Trackit. Read more. 

Recent quantum advancements from Microsoft, Amazon and Google make clear that the computing power that can be directed to break encryption is about to increase by an order of magnitude we’ve never seen before. The developments represent significant leaps forward in terms of computing power and raise important questions. Read more.

Hot Links:

• Nearly one in four tech jobs posted so far this year are seeking employees with skills in AI, impacting industries from finance to retail. (The Wall Street Journal)

• Former Washington Post editor Martin Baron writes that Jeff Bezos’ “courage failed him when he needed it most” as owner of the newspaper. (The Atlantic)

• Four Tesla Cybertrucks burned at a storage lot in Seattle’s SoDo area late Sunday. The company’s vehicles have been the target of increased vandalism. (KING 5)

• Digital wayfinding is now live at Seattle’s Fauntleroy Park, so anyone with a smartphone can navigate the park’s trails and learn about points of interest along the way. (West Seattle Blog)

• Visit Bellevue added three new Kia EV9 electric vehicles to its free BellHop shuttle service, which first rolled out in the city in August 2023. (Visit Bellevue)