When Rocket Companies (RKT) announced plans to acquire Redfin (RDFN) in March, CEO Varun Krishna framed the $1.75 billion, all-stock deal as a game-changing fusion of home search and mortgage financing.
The company, already one of the largest mortgage originators in the country, said merging with Redfin’s agent network and search platform would "remove friction, reduce costs, and increase value to American homebuyers."
Then Rocket doubled down. Two weeks later, it announced a $9.4 billion acquisition of Mr. Cooper, the largest mortgage servicing firm in the U.S.
Together, the deals would give Rocket dominance in lending, servicing, and online search, a vertical stack of the entire homebuying pipeline.
That’s exactly what has lawmakers fuming.
Five U.S. senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Cory Booker, signed a letter urging the DOJ and FTC to investigate the mergers. They warned that the deals would “reduce choice and raise prices” in an already overheated housing market.
The senators called Rocket’s strategy an “acquisition spree” designed to create a “hyper-scaled homeownership platform” with control over each step of the buying journey.
They also flagged a since-dropped 2024 lawsuit by the CFPB, which accused Rocket of steering borrowers toward its own mortgages by incentivizing real estate agents.
However, the case was dismissed shortly after Trump installed new leadership at the agency in January.
🏠 "Amazon-level disruption’ could fuel Rocket’s next leg higher
Not everyone’s buying the antitrust outrage.Citron Research — the once-notorious short-seller now turned opportunistic bull — sees the merger as a long-overdue fix for a broken system.
“Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have NEVER made Citron want to buy a stock... until now,” the firm wrote on X.
Far from monopolistic, Citron says the Rocket–Redfin–Cooper trifecta is “Amazon-level disruption,” slashing bloated real estate commissions and replacing them with AI-fueled efficiency.
“Redfin already offers 1–1.5% listing fees with buyer rebates,” the note said. “That’s not anti-competitive. That’s consumer value.”
The firm argues the combined company would control one in six U.S. mortgages and streamline the entire homebuying stack — from search to signing — with machine learning and automation.
“This merger threatens the broken model, not consumers,” Citron wrote. “It’s a paradigm shift.” “Ironically, Warren’s letter is the clearest evidence yet of why Rocket is about to rocket,” Citron added.
And investors may already be voting with their wallets. Rocket is up 16.3% year-to-date, while Redfin has surged 30.4%.
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