October 25, 2017 — Team Velocity Marketing scooped up video pre-roll production company, Car-Mercial, the company announced earlier this week. Car-Mercial’s video technology will be integrated into Team Velocity’s marketing automation platform, Apollo.Terms of the deal were not disclosed. With video being the fastest growing consumer medium, Team Velocity believes Car-Mercial’s dynamic video platform will… Continue Reading
October 18, 2017 — Assurant Inc. announced this morning it is acquiring The Warranty Group from TPG Capital in an enterprise deal valued at $2.5 billion. Assurant’s (NYSE: AIZ) share price jumped more than $6 to $101 on the news. With a $1.9 billion equity valuation for The Warranty Group — $2.5 billion with its… Continue Reading
October 9, 2017 — IHS Markit’s acquisition of Automotive Mastermind, one of the year’s biggest U.S.-based deals, brought an active third quarter to a close last week. The other big story of the quarter — and perhaps the year — is the nearly $200 million invested in six startups specializing in online automotive transaction solutions.…
September 5, 2017 — The lawsuits are piling up and more are on the way. Late last month, Superior Integrated Solutions (SIS), owner of Darwin Automotive, became the third dealership vendor to file a lawsuit against Reynolds and Reynolds since February alleging anti-competitive practices. At issue are the policies and practices Reynolds and CDK Global…
August 24, 2017 — (Originally published on LinkedIn) Since July, venture capital firms have invested $159.2 million into the automotive retail industry. And all of the capital is going into five companies whose solutions focus on online transactions. Overall, there have been 20 total deals since January in the industry — eight investments, 10 acquisitions… Continue Reading
August 21, 2017 — The segment is still in its nascent phase but the roll up of marketing attribution firms in the automotive retail space has started. Late last week, Semcasting acquired TransparencyAI, a data analytics firm which has come on strong in the last year helping publishers measure the effectiveness of their digital advertising… Continue Reading
August 17, 2017 — Following a first quarter with only one announced acquisition, the second quarter ended with eight acquisitions, two public offerings and three investments, bringing the mid-year total to 13 deals in the automotive retail vendor space. The rebound puts 2017 on a similar pace with 2016 which saw 31 total deals. Much of…
May 24, 2017 — CDK Global is announcing this morning that it is acquiring Auto/Mate Dealership Systems. The move, which will further consolidate the dealer management system (DMS) space, should be completed in late summer once the regulatory process runs its course. Financial terms for the deal have not been disclosed yet. Auto/Mate was started as… Continue Reading
May 23, 2017 — We’re still waiting the official announcement, but sources have confirmed Experian Automotive will announce in the near future that it has acquired String Automotive, a 12 year-old data analytics firm based in Newton, MA. The acquisition cements a relationship that began in 2014 when Experian Automotive’s Auto Market DNA℠ demographic and behavioral information’s… Continue Reading
May 14, 2017 — Acquisition activity among auto retail vendors is slowly rebounding following a first quarter that brought only one deal. In recent weeks, Dominion Web Solutions, Drivin, Automatic and World Dealer were acquired while Carvana launched an initial public offering (IPO). Next up is Cars.com which will begin trading on the New York…