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…
October 2, 2018 — The Reynolds and Reynolds Company and several dealers part of a class action lawsuit filed against the technology vendor agreed in principle last week to settle, according to a court document filed late Friday. There is no word on what the terms of the pending settlement are. A similar agreement with…
September 19, 2018 — After nearly 20 years at the helm of the nation’s largest dealer group, the AutoNation Mike Jackson joined in October 1999 strategically is not much different than the one he will step away from in the next few months. Jackson, 69 years old, announced earlier this morning he will step aside… Continue Reading
August 12, 2018 — Sources have confirmed CDK Global will announce Monday morning it is partnering with ride hailing company Lyft to provide a transportation solution for dealership service departments to integrate into their loaner fleet programs. Lyft Business’ Concierge dispatch solution — already being used by approximately 300 dealerships — will be integrated into… Continue Reading
July 3, 2018 — Reynolds and Reynolds and CDK Global counter-sued Authenticom last week alleging the Wisconsin-based firm participated in cyber piracy, trade secret theft and fraud. The counter-suits are the latest in an ongoing legal battle in which as many as four vendors and 25 dealers have accused Reynolds and CDK of antitrust violations.…
June 22, 2018 — Carmax shares are up nearly 10% and more than $6.60 in pre-market trading this morning after being down $1.72 yesterday. The jump this morning is being fueled by a strong first (fiscal) quarter in which Carmax’s earnings per share of $1.33 beat expectations by $0.09 and overall revenue of $4.79 billion… Continue Reading
April 17, 2018 — Online used vehicle retailer Carvana announced this morning it has acquired Car360, an Atlanta-based start up that developed a mobile app with one the first commercially available uses of 3D computer vision, machine learning and augmented reality technology for the automotive industry. The acquisition adds 3D and augmented reality technology to the… Continue Reading
April 10, 2018 — Leucadia National Corporation announced yesterday it is selling its equity and real estate interests in dealer group Garcardia to the Garff family, its partners in the joint venture that began in 2006. Leucadia, a publicly traded holding company (LUK – NYSE) holds a 75% interest in Garcadia, which includes 28 dealerships…
March 8, 2018 — CDK Global is launching a flexible pricing dealer management system aimed at dealer groups consisting of one or two stores. The new DMS, being called DriveFlex, will be built from the ground up on the Amazon Web Services Cloud platform and will come with a new user-interface while providing for a… Continue Reading
March 6, 2018 — Despite industry perception that dealership consolidation is on the rise, buy-sell activity of U.S.-based stores declined in 2017 for the second consecutive year, based on data compiled by The Banks Report. Even with the downward trend the last two years, the buy-sell market has been vibrant since 2013 as the industry… Continue Reading