January 18, 2018 — Audi CEO and head of Volkswagen group sales Rupert Stadler was arrested earlier this morning as part of the ongoing diesel scandal that has roiled parent company The Volkswagen Group since 2015. According to various media reports, German officials arrested Stadler at his home early Monday morning on concerns he might… Continue Reading
May 31, 2018 — A late report in the New York Post yesterday afternoon claiming Cars.com is for sale pushed the company’s stock up more than 4% in after hours trading. The only problem is, the story, which was picked up in numerous media outlets, likely isn’t true. The story also reported the Cars.com had… Continue Reading
As automakers begin flooding the market with electric vehicles (EV) the next couple of years, a key question yet to be answered is just how much tax credits drive demand for a segment that makes up 1% of the new car market. For Tesla and General Motors, the question is critical because both automakers are… Continue Reading
April 26, 2018 — Harsh comments from Jim Chanos, founder and managing partner of Kynikos Associates, this morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box about Elon Musk and Tesla. His firm, well-known for its short-selling investment strategy, has been short on Tesla for four years. Chanos brings some street cred to the conversation. He was one of the first… Continue Reading
April 17, 2018 — CDK Global announced this morning it has acquired Progressus Media, a mobile ad platform with solutions for social, display and search advertising. The company will be part of CDK’s Digital Advertising Group led by Jen Cole. Progressus Media, headquartered in Chicago, was co-founded in 2012 by Drew Marticke. CDK will maintain… Continue Reading
April 4, 2018 — Acquisition activity in the dealer website world suddenly has become hot with the third deal since last November. This afternoon, fusionZONE Automotive LLC announced it is acquiring competitor MotorWebs Inc. The acquisition is the 18th automotive retail vendor deal this year and follows Primus Capital’s majority investment into fusionZONE last November.… Continue Reading
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
February 1, 2018 — A judicial panel in Miami ruled this morning that five of the antitrust cases in which Reynolds and Reynolds and CDK Global are defendants will be classified under the multi-district litigation and transferred to the Northern District Court in Illinois. The panel issued the ruling after listening to oral arguments from… Continue Reading
January 30, 2018 — Cars.com continues to unwind its affiliate contracts with previous owners which include six major newspaper publishing firms, a relic from the company’s founding 20 years ago. The latest move, announced this morning, converting eight of newspaper publisher tronc’s affiliate markets into Cars.com’s direct sales channel effective February 1. As part of… Continue Reading