LendingTree is the largest online lending marketplace in the United States. It connects borrowers with multiple lenders so they can find the best deals on loans, credit cards, deposit accounts, insurance and more. LendingTree allows borrowers to shop and compare competitive rates and terms across an array of financial products. Founded in 1996 and launched nationally two years later, the company is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Chicago, Seattle and others. LendingTree also provides financing tools, comparative loan searches and borrowing information.
History
Founding
After graduating from Bucknell University, Doug Lebda went to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Pittsburgh as an auditor and consultant. When he decided to purchase his first home and obtain a mortgage, he found the process of visiting multiple banks and combing through mortgage offers frustrating, time-consuming, and exhausting. Lebda realized that if the process was that difficult for someone with his financial acumen, then there must be a massive market of others with the same desire for a better way. With this idea, Doug founded CreditSource USA in 1996, and the new company was later rebranded as LendingTree and by 1998, LendingTree launched nationally online with its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
IAC Ownership
LendingTree went through a successful initial public offering on February 15, 2000. In May 2003, LendingTree, LLC, was acquired by IAC/InterActiveCorp, former owner of Ticketmaster, Home Shopping Network and current owner of Match.com. In 2004, LendingTree acquired HomeLoanCenter.com and formed LendingTree Loans. After five years, LendingTree spun off from IAC to join newly established Tree.com, Inc. Tree.com was the parent company of several brands and businesses in the financial services and real estate industries including LendingTree.com; GetSmart.com; DegreeTree.com; LendingTreeAutos.com; and DoneRight.com. In 2015, LendingTree disassembled the Tree.com umbrella to focus on its core brand, LendingTree, which now incorporates business loans, personal loans, debt consolidation, free credit scores, and student loans along with its core mortgage products home loans, mortgage refinance, and home equity.
Acquisitions
In June 2016, LendingTree kicked off a streak of several corporate development deals with the acquisition of SimpleTuition, a company in the student loans space. Subsequent acquisitions include CompareCards, DepositAccounts.com, MagnifyMoney, SnapCap, Student Loan Hero, QuoteWizard , and ValuePenguin. In November 2016, LendingTree announced plans to invest $47 million and double the employee base of its Charlotte headquarters over the following five years. The company's corporate expansion would create 314 jobs during that time span. In April 2019, LendingTree announced a shift from its previously announced expansion in Charlotte's South Park neighborhood, to instead move to a brand new office building in Charlotte's South End, being developed by The Spectrum Companies.
