April 14, 2020 — Online used-vehicle retailer Carvana share price jumped nearly 23% yesterday to $75.28 and is up nearly another $7 in early trading this morning. That’s a 228.6% increase from just over three weeks ago when its stock price hit its 52-week low of $22.91. Each of the eight public dealer group stocks…
April 7, 2020 — Add collision repair to the list of businesses that will be decimated by the COVID-19 virus over the next couple of months. Even though vehicle service and repair shops are deemed “essential businesses” in each state, the collision business likely will plummet as vehicles are staying parked in driveways due to… Continue Reading
March 19, 2020 — Earlier this week, the Asbury Automotive Group (ABG) filed an 8-K document with the SEC informing investors it “intends to continue to evaluate alternatives,” regarding its pending acquisition of 10 dealerships from the Park Place group in Texas. The announcement is not a surprise given what the entire country — and…
March 9, 2020 — The number of franchise new-vehicle dealerships involved in buy-sell transactions declined 6.7% in 2019 from 2018. The number of transactions dropped 11.1% over the same period. Despite the decline, 2019 was the third most active year — in the number of rooftops and the number of transactions — over the last…
February 3, 2020 — A month into the new year and there have been seven investments and acquisitions announced with at least one more expected in the next several days in the auto retail vendor space. The January activity continues the pace set in 2019 in which more than 70 acquisitions and investments were transacted.…
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…
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 23, 2019 — Late yesterday afternoon, AutoNation announced long-time CFO and vice president Cheryl Miller as its new CEO and president. She’s replacing Carl Liebert. On the surface, the change was a shock. Liebert had only assumed the top job at the nation’s top-selling dealer group in March after a months-long search that reportedly…