November 13, 2023 — CarOffer founder and serial entrepreneur Bruce Thompson is walking away with another $75 million in cash as CarGurus announced last week it is acquiring the final 49% of the Texas-based online used-vehicle trading platform. Zach Hallowell, whom CarGurus recently snatched from Cox Automotive’s Manheim division, will lead CarOffer following Thompson’s resignation.… Continue Reading
November 2, 2023 — Cars Commerce (Cars.com) announced this morning it has acquired the Montreal-based D2C Media Inc., an automotive technology and digital solutions provider for the Canadian market. The acquisition expands Cars’ footprint adding 1,000 Canadian dealerships to the 250 it currently has. Cars paid USD $76 million in cash ($105 million CAD) at… Continue Reading
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock & Luigi Morris October 30, 2023 (With November 14th updates) — The dust is still settling from the recent tentative settlements between the United Auto Workers union and the Detroit Three automakers. Still, initial details reflect agreements that may be a win-win for both sides following a 40+ day strike costing… Continue Reading
October 23, 2023 — KPA, a compliance services provider, announced last week it is acquiring ComplyNet, a Columbus, OH-based firm providing end-to-end compliance software for automotive dealerships. Phil Troy founded ComplyNet in 1994 in Chicago and sold it in 2018 to an investment group led by Alexis Jacobs, owner of Columbus Fair Auto Auction, and,… Continue Reading
October 9, 2023 — An intriguing announcement in the electric and autonomous vehicle service and repair space last week as Kinetic, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service startup, announced a $10 million Series A capital raise. Focusing on the EV side of service, maintenance, and repair is a play we haven’t seen before, but makes sense as the auto… Continue Reading
October 9, 2023 — Since Lendbuzz CEO and Co-Founder Amitay Kalmar joined us on stage at the AUTOVATE conference in December last year, his company revenues jumped more than 80% in 2023, and has just announced a $45 million raise in equity funding along with $300 million a forward flow facility. The $45 million infusion… Continue Reading
September 26, 2023 — Wow. A shootout erupted between Lithia Motors and the Penske Automotive Group last week as both companies announced competing bids for the right to acquire Pendragon, one of the United Kingdom’s largest dealer groups. And now, AutoNation jumped in tonight with a bid of approximately $542 million (£447 million). Lithia Motors… Continue Reading
September 8, 2023 — Asbury Automotive is acquiring the Jim Koons automotive dealership group for $1.2 billion. The transaction is expected to close late this year or in early 2024. (Read TBR’s analysis of the deal and the pricing – written September 7th). The deal, which will be the third largest in history, includes $740… Continue Reading
September 7, 2023 — This week, the Asbury Automotive Group filed an 8-K with the SEC, alerting the market it is talking to the Jim Koons Automotive Companies about purchasing its 21 dealerships. (UPDATE: Asbury announced it is acquiring Koons — Read more Here.) The filing most likely was precipitated by the news leaking out… Continue Reading
(Photo: Bernardo Rodriguez, J.D. Power CTO & CDO) August 27, 2023 –Palantir Technologies is not a well-known name in the automotive retail space. But that may soon change as it expands from an intelligence and defense-focused software firm to one of the leading AI providers in the commercial space. Palantir is one of the more… Continue Reading