Lebda: Crunch Survivors Will Thrive

Keynoting the REConnect Conference in San Francisco, LendingTree founder Doug Lebda predicted that the survivors of the current mortgage liquidity crunch will grow bigger and stronger.While mortgage lenders may not want to become part of a conglomerate -- as his company did when he sold it to Barry Diller's IAC -- he said LendingTree itself has thrived under the IAC umbrella. Mr. Lebda reassured lenders that LendingTree will remain more of a marketplace facilitator than a competitor to mortgage lenders. He said its slice of the mortgage origination market will remain tiny as LendingTree concentrates on building business on the real estate side. LendingTree can be found online at http://www.lendingtree.com.