December 5, 2015 — DealerTrack apparently likes to make surprise announcements in December. Last year, it announced the acquisition of Dealer.com in what turned out to be a $987 million deal. Yesterday, the Long Island-based dealer technology firm confirmed it is in preliminary discussions to make another acquisition and will announce its decision by or on January 1,…
November 24, 2014 — Teachers in Texas apparently like the financial prospects of franchised car dealerships. One of the country’s largest pension funds, the Teachers Retirement System of Texas is investing in Capital Automotive, a firm that provides sale-leaseback capital to car dealers, through an investment fund established by Capital’s parent Brookfield Property Partners. Brookfield…
November 23, 2014 — Cox Automotive continues to be active in the acquisition space buying the assets of small used car data firm last week, following its $325 million purchase of Xtime two weeks ago. It.has spent approximately $3 billion on both U.S. and international (China and Brazil) acquisitions since 2010. Meanwhile, the Atlanta-based firm…
It continues to be a sizzling year for acquisitions in the automotive retail space. The Banks Report has learned the latest company to be acquired is Xtime, a firm that provides technology solutions to dealership service departments. Cox Automotive is announcing this afternoon that it has acquired the Redwood City, CA-based firm for $325 million…
November 8, 2014 — An interesting legal decision this past week in California affecting the pharmaceutical industry may have a bearing on the future of CDK Global, Autobytel and other automotive retail vendors that are dealing with activist investors. A judge ruled on Tuesday that activist investor Bill Ackman can vote all of his shares at… Continue Reading
November 7, 2014 — Autobytel’s shares jumped 7.59% yesterday closing at $10.06 following a strong third quarter in which the Internet pioneer in automotive retail posted revenue increase of more than 26% from 2013 to $27.4 million — its highest quarterly revenue since 2007. Revenue for the first three quarters was $80.2 million, up 39% from…
November 5, 2014 — UPDATED WITH NEW REVENUE INFORMATION — Dealership website chat service firm Contact at Once! has been acquired by LivePerson Inc. (NASDAQ: LPSN) for approximately $65 million. Contact at Once! provides text and chat services for dealership websites in the automotive retail space. It acquired the chat solution of OutSell earlier this year.… Continue Reading
October 29, 2014 — Autobytel’s next earnings call with analysts, slated for November 5th, could get interesting. A scathing letter last week from activist investor Ancora Advisors LLC reveals intense dissatisfaction with the current management team and likely will force a sale of Autobytel. The question is, who would buy it? The last month has…
October 28, 2014 — CDK’s share prices jump as Wall Street welcomes the news of a new investor in the dealership technology vendor. Only trading on NASDAQ just under a month following its spinoff from ADP, dealer technology provider CDK Global already is being targeted by an activist investment group seeking to discuss with management how to…
Mitch Golub announced his retirement as president of Cars.com earlier today in a letter that was sent to employees a few minutes ago. The Gannett Co.’s acquisition of Cars.com was completed a couple of weeks ago at which time Dan Jauernig was named as CEO of Cars.com. Jauernig had been CEO of Classified Ventures, the parent company of Cars.com… Continue Reading