Late Thursday afternoon, Dealertrack Technologies announced it has reached a deal to acquire Dealer.com. The companies entered a definitive agreement, under which Dealertrack would purchase the entire equity of Dealer.com for about 8.7 million shares of Dealertrack common stock and $620 million cash.

The deal is subject to customary post-closing adjustments, the companies said, and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2014 (subject to regulatory approval).  

Dealertrack plans on financing the cash portion of the deal via cash on hand and through fully committed debt financing.

The companies said they expect the deal to “to be accretive to Dealertrack's standalone multi-year organic growth profile to Dealertrack's diluted adjusted net income per share.”

Dealertrack said it “places a high value on the culture of creativity and innovation that has been the hallmark of Dealer.com” and intends for its existing Burlington, Vt., headquarters to be a “center of excellence for digital marketing solutions” to complement Dealertrack's Dallas office.

Dealertrack will keep Dealer.com name “to represent Dealertrack's advanced and complementary set of digital marketing products and services.”

“By joining forces with Dealer.com, we will be able to provide dealers, OEMs and other industry partners with a deep and broad array of integrated solutions,” said Mark O'Neil, chairman and chief executive officer at Dealertrack.

“Dealer.com and its team, whom we've long admired and respected, complement our solutions, catapulting our vision of delivering the market leading suite of integrated technologies capable of transforming automotive retailing even further.”

Dealer.com CEO Rick Gibbs said: “This is a very exciting opportunity for Dealer.com. By combining our strengths with Dealertrack, we will be able to enhance our marketplace offering with an integrated, end-to-end solution that will help bring the automotive retailing industry to a new level of efficiency and performance.”

Gibbs added, “Dealer.com is proud of the unique culture we, as a company, have nurtured over the years, making this a truly outstanding place to work. We will look to carry this same culture – along with our energy and spirit of innovation – forward as we unite with Dealertrack.”

Once the deal is closed, Gibbs becomes executive vice president and group president of Dealertrack's Digital Marketing solution team.
 

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