July 15, 2018 — CDK Global will announce Monday morning it is acquiring the auto retail industry’s leading customer relationship management firm ELead1One, according to several sources familiar with the deal. The acquisition checks off several boxes for CDK while filling a big product hole — a viable integrated CRM platform with significant market share.… Continue Reading
July 3, 2018 — The Banks Report has compiled a list of 32 different companies providing aspects of the digital retailing/online transaction process in the automotive industry. The list has grown since our initial report in January on digital retailing. In addition, TBR is putting together an analysis of what’s actually working on the online… 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.…
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 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 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
April 4, 2018 — A flurry of announcements during the week of the annual National Automobile Dealers Assn.’s convention in late March capped what has been a busy first quarter for M&A activity for automotive retail vendors this year. The 17 investments and acquisitions through March puts the industry on a pace to nearly double… 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
February 26, 2018 — We’re still not through February but there have been 14 investments, acquisitions and mergers already this year with vendors in the automotive retail space, up from two in the first quarter of last year. Seven of the deals have been in the online transaction space where investments have continued a frenzied…
February 14, 2018 — Cars.com announced this morning it is acquiring the Chicago-based automotive retail technology firm Dealer Inspire and its digital advertising agency Launch Digital Marketing (LDM). The acquisition, which is expected to close this month, is the first for Cars.com since it became a stand-alone company after completing its public spinoff from media…
