May 2, 2017 — Authenticom, a firm providing data integration services to car dealers, filed a lawsuit late yesterday against CDK Global and Reynolds and Reynolds alleging the two companies engaged in antitrust practices. The suit could have far-reaching implications — not only on the companies involved, but also on the entire automotive retail space. It’s another chapter… Continue Reading
April 21, 2016 — Berkshire Hathaway Automotive finds itself the victim of the law of unintended consequences in Texas’ fight to keep electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla from selling direct to consumers. The problem is that Texas’ legislation prohibiting manufacturers from selling vehicles directly to customers in the state was written so broadly that it includes… Continue Reading
April 18, 2017 – Get ready to jam to some tunes at the next Cox Automotive economic briefing…Seriously. The company announced this morning that DJ Smokey Smoke, also known as Jonathan Smoke, is succeeding long time automotive analyst Tom Webb as its chief economist. If you haven’t heard of him, you will. Smoke, who moonlights… Continue Reading
April 6, 2017 — (UPDATE — SEE BELOW) Acquisition activity among automotive retail vendors has ground to a halt in the the first quarter this year, according to data compiled by The Banks Report. Other than Solera Holding’s purchase of the British-based Autodata the first week of January, there have been no investments, IPOs or acquisitions…
March 18, 2017 — Although 2016 saw a slight downturn in the number of transactions from 2015, dealership buy-sell activity the last three years has stayed fairly consistent, according to data compiled by The Banks Report. And 2017 is shaping up to be on par with the previous three years. From 2015 to 2016, the…
March 3, 2017 — The Morgan Auto Group in Tampa announced yesterday it has acquired Naples Mazda and Naples Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram from Jon and Tom Myers. The acquisitions brings Morgan’s total number of stores to 23. Since January 2016, Morgan has added 11 stores, including acquisitions of Sun Toyota, Rountree-Moore Motors and Mercedes… Continue Reading
March 2, 2017 — Ron Lamb, the president of Reynolds and Reynolds, has decided to leave the automotive retail technology giant to pursue opportunities in private equity, according to a statement provided to associates earlier today. He was named president of Reynolds and Reynolds in October 2010. He began his career with Reynolds in 1991 and… Continue Reading
February 20. 2017 (UPDATED) — The industry had a scare last Thursday when it appeared that a large data breach occurred involving several dealer management system (DMS) providers and dealer groups. What actually happened was much more benign, and involved none of the DMS vendors. Nor did the event involve any sensitive personal data. The… Continue Reading
February 4, 2017 — In what may become the year’s biggest story in automotive retail, the long simmering battle over data access in the automotive retail world escalated yesterday when a third party vendor sued tech giants CDK Global, Reynolds and Reynolds and one of their joint ventures for engaging in antitrust practices. This is the first…
February 3, 2017 — CDK Global’s stock price hit its all time high yesterday of $65.03 following a strong second quarter fiscal 2017 report. It settled back down to close at just over $64. The stock has been on an upward trajectory the last six months and was trading at just under $54 a share in… Continue Reading