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
January 30, 2018 — Fair announced this morning a strategic partnership with Uber along with the acquisition of the lease portfolio of the ride-hailing firm’s XChange Leasing program. As part of the agreement, Fair will become Uber’s exclusive U.S.leasing partner for drivers leasing vehicles for a month or longer. Financial terms of the acquisition were… Continue Reading
January 10, 2018 — AutoNation Chairman and CEO Mike Jackson has been appointed to serve as chairman of Atlanta’s Federal Reserve board for a one-year term that started January 1. Jackson, who previously was deputy chairman, will head Atlanta’s nine-member board that is responsible for the district encompassing Florida, Alabama, Georgia and areas of Mississippi, Tennessee… Continue Reading