January 13, 2019 — Two somewhat obscure press releases last week hint at what may be the next “disruption” in the auto retail industry. Disruption is an easy term to throw around, but in automotive retail, three areas are ripe for significant innovation — CRM, service, and dealer management systems. The Banks Report isn’t in… Continue Reading
January 13, 2019 — As part of its transformation into becoming a leading player in automotive mobility, Cox Automotive’s Mobility Group launched its new Pivet brand Sunday at a media event in Detroit prior to today’s opening of the North American International Auto Show. Pivet aims to build a network of service and maintenance hubs…
December 20, 2018 — Fueled by a $385 million Series B investment led by SoftBank, vehicle subscription platform Fair is going global. After officially launching in August 2017, Fair is now in 26 U.S. markets with nearly 52,000 vehicles from 3,200 dealerships available on its mobile app. More than 20,000 consumers have used the platform… Continue Reading
November 13, 2018 — A flurry of 26 deals since the beginning of September has pushed the year’s total to 64, a record for investments and acquisitions in the automotive retail vendor space. The blistering pace continued into the first week of November with data analytics firm Marchex’s purchase of Telmetrics and Infomedia’s acquisition of…
For Autovate 2018 Attendees September 20, 2018 — Two years ago, Amazon launched its Amazon Vehicles page setting off a flurry of industry predictions the tech giant was preparing to upend and take over the automotive retail space. Not so fast. Amazon is preparing a huge push into automotive, but it’s not going to be… Continue Reading
November 7, 2018 — More than 60 deals have been completed through October this year, making 2018 the most active year on record for investment and acquisition activity among vendors serving the automotive retail space. (NOTE: This is a partial report made available to attendees of AUTOVATE 2018). Despite the record activity this year, the total… Continue Reading
November 7, 2018 — CDK Global announced this morning it has named Brian Krzanich as president and chief executive officer, replacing Brian MacDonald. Krzanich, 58, spent 36 years at Intel, including serving as its CEO from May 2013 to June 2018. He also was named to CDK’s board of directors. Krzanich generally received high marks… Continue Reading
October 23, 2018 — Reynolds and Reynolds and CDK Global and their joint venture Computer Vehicle Registration (CVR) failed in their fourth attempt to dismiss the lawsuits alleging they engaged in several antitrust activities. Late Monday, Judge Robert Dowd in Illinois’ Northern District denied the defendant’s motions to dismiss the lawsuits filed by Motor Vehicle… Continue Reading
October 11, 2018 — Automotive online transaction platform Shift Technologies is beginning to see the early benefits of the recent $54 million investment from Lithia Motors, one of the country’s largest dealership groups. Shift announced this morning that through its relationship with Lithia, it has secured a floor plan credit line four times larger than… Continue Reading
October 11. 2018 — While Lyft executives continue to predict the end of private ownership, the rideshare company is expanding its business into dealerships. It’s latest foray is with RedCap Technologies, which today announced the launch of a new courtesy shuttle solution leveraging Lyft’s Concierge API platform. RedCap, which was acquired by Solera Holdings earlier… Continue Reading