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 12, 2017 — J.D. Power announced yesterday that Chief Executive Officer and President Finbarr O’Neill will retire from the company, effective March 2018. The search for his successor is underway. O’Neill, 65, will act as a Senior Advisor to the company following the transition to the new CEO. O’Neill led the firm for 10 years,… 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 6, 2017 — Scott Painter officially launched Fair, his newest venture this week in Los Angeles with plans to roll it out through out California by the end of the year and into other markets in 2018. The Banks Report first reported on the new venture last November. It’s a fintech mobile solution that provides… Continue Reading
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 29, 2017 — Jonathan Ord, CEO of CRM vendor DealerSocket, is stepping down as CEO of the company he founded with Brad Perry in 2001. Replacing Ord is Sejal Pietrzak, who is leaving her position as Chief Administration Officer at Active Network. Under Ord’s leadership, DealerSocket grew into one of the top CRM companies… Continue Reading
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…
August 9, 2017 — After seemingly being dominated in the early stages in the antitrust lawsuit filed by Authenticom in May, Reynolds and Reynolds and CDK Global have clawed back to what can be described as a tie. The Seventh District Court of Appeals yesterday granted the two technology firms a stay of the preliminary…