CoStar Group Inc.

2 Bethesda Metro Center

Year founded: 1987

Industry: Information technology

Post 200 Category: Top 125 Companies

Revenue: $112.09 Million

Net Income/Loss: $24.99 Million

Earnings per share: $1.33

Dividend: n/a

Stockholder equity: $210.94 Million

Auditor: Ernst & Young LLP

Stock: CSGP

Assets: $232.69 Million

Market capitalization: $650.61 Million

52-week high: 49.42 9/30/2004

52-week low: 35.06 4/12/2005

President and CEO: Andrew C. Florance

CFO: Frank A. Carchedi

Employees: 1104

Local employees: 449

Description: CoStar has been described as "the Bloomberg for commercial real estate," providing in-depth information online about commercial properties to that industry. It is the only large public company providing such data nationwide; its main competitors are small, privately owned regional companies. In January, it expanded its retail real estate data service, buying a firm that sells property information to the shopping-center industry.

Developments: Company founder Andrew C. Florance, son of noted Washington architect Colden "Coke" Florance, came up with the concept for CoStar while he was in college. He was creating financial software for real estate developers when he saw a void. While stockbrokers nationwide had vast amounts of information to consult before making decisions, commercial real estate brokers had little data on office buildings. Florance launched his business in his parents' basement. After developing the business into one that relied on a substantial desktop database system, Florance took the company public in 1998 and was tracking about 50 commercial markets as of 2003. That year's switch from a desktop system to an Internet-based information platform played a big role in increasing revenue for the year, the company said; CoStar had its first profit in 2003. In 2004, the financial results continued to improve. The company has benefited from stabilization in the commercial real estate market, CoStar officials say. And it's starting to reap the benefits of recent acquisitions and expansion. In May, it announced plans to expand to 21 new U.S. markets, including Richmond, Las Vegas, Hartford, Conn., and Tucson. In June, its London subsidiary bought an online commercial property information company in Scotland. In January, CoStar paid $4.1 million cash for the National Research Bureau, the leading provider of property information to the shopping-center industry. By moving into retail, the company is essentially doubling its database, according to one analyst. CoStar tracks more than 29 billion square feet of commercial real estate nationwide. Serving property owners, brokers, lenders, appraisers and institutional investors, CoStar is building a database of almost every non-residential building in the markets it covers, which will include property photos, floor plans, asking rents, tenant information and space available for lease.