UPDATE – January 22, 2020: A temporary restraining order has been issued delaying the transaction till at least February 11. January 15, 2020 — Following Jonathan Ord’s December lawsuit against DealerSocket (reported last week by The Banks Report), co-founder Brad Perry filed his own lawsuit this week against investment firm Vista Equity Partners, its DealerSocket…
January 8, 2020 — Vista Equity Partners-backed DealerSocket announced this week it has agreed to acquire dealer management software vendor Auto/Mate. The deal (which as of yet, does not have a timeline) provides insight into Vista’s automotive plans, but there are questions still to be answered. Vista Equity is one of the bigger investors in…
January 6, 2020 — DealerOn, Inc. is announcing this morning a strategic partnership with private equity firm NexPhase Capital. Brothers Ali and Amir Amirrezvani, who founded the website and digital marketing company in 2004, began talking with NexPhase in early 2019 and closed the deal in November. Over its 15 years, DealerOn has grown into… Continue Reading
January 6, 2020 — Dealer Tire announced this morning it is acquiring Dent Wizard in what is the first big M&A announcement this year. Dealer Tire, which was acquired by Bain Capital in 2018 in a deal rumored to be in the $2.5 billion range, says in a press release the acquisition of Dent Wizard… Continue Reading
November 1, 2019 — Pivotal. That’s probably the best word to describe vendor mergers and acquisitions and investments among automotive retail vendors in 2019. Aggressive roll-up plays, new directions, and evolving industries forming now will reshape the industry over the next five years. In TBR’s Third Quarter Report on Auto Retail Vendor Merger and Acquisition…
September 16, 2019 — CDK Global’s 15-year run as being the exclusive vendor for General Motors’ dealership websites came to an official end last week as the automaker announced an additional three providers to its website program. The move likely will reshape the dealership website landscape over the next couple of years. The new vendors…
July 31, 2019 — Thoma Bravo emerged yesterday as the winning bidder for J.D. Power and Associates. It is the private equity firm’s second automotive-data play since late April when it acquired Autodata Solutions from KKR. Bravo also owns Trader Corp., the leading automotive retail digital company in Canada (it acquired the Montreal-based digital marketing…
July 17, 2019 — New York-based private equity firm CIP Capital is continuing the roll-up strategy it started in 2016 when it acquired four marketing firms — OneCommand, Peak Performance, TimeHighway and DPS (Dealer Product Services) — combining them into a new entity called Affinitiv. CIP Capital is acquiring Clearwater, FL-based AutoLoop and will merge… Continue Reading
July 16, 2019 — Late last week, CDK Global and Cox Automotive and its subsidiaries informed the federal court in Illinois they have settled their lawsuits resulting from a long-standing dispute over access to data and how that data is used. The settlement does not impact other parties involved in the multi-district litigation (MDL) that… Continue Reading
June 3, 2019 — After three and half years at the helm of TrueCar, Chip Perry is stepping down as CEO and president, the company announced today. TrueCar has not named a replacement for Perry, who will continue to consult with the company. Perry, one of the pioneers in the automotive Internet space, founded AutoTrader… Continue Reading