RealPage, the sinister puppet master of the rental industry, has been dragged to court by the U.S. Justice Department and eight courageous attorneys general for its role in orchestrating a massive rent-hiking scheme.
This Texas-based behemoth is accused of bribing rival landlords to surrender their secrets, using that stolen intel to train its recommendation algorithms and dictate prices to landlords, who are too afraid to defy its omniscient grasp. It’s a chilling tale of algorithmic collusion, and the consequences are dire: rent in the U.S. has skyrocketed by a staggering 33% since March 2020, according to Zillow.
RealPage, the private equity-backed behemoth that was acquired by Thoma Bravo in 2021 for a whopping $10.2 billion, wields an iron grip on the market, commanding an astonishing 80% of the commercial revenue management software for conventional multi-family housing rentals in the U.S. And despite the mountain of evidence against it, the company is claiming it’s all just a big misunderstanding.
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