During the past few years, it was Dealertrack Technologies announcing not only year-over-year growth but also acquisitions that pushed the company toward plans to move next year into a larger new headquarters consisting of more than 200,000 square feet.

Then on Monday, the perspective completely flipped for Dealertrack as word came to light about Cox Automotive making plans to acquire the service provider that helps stores manage their vehicle inventory as well as business in the finance office for $4 billion in cash.

When reached exclusively by Auto Remarketing on Monday, Dealertrack co-president Raj Sundaram said, “28 acquisitions later, this one is a little different.”

Among those moves, Dealertrack brought firms such as Dealer.com, Auto Title Express and 1st Auto Transport Directory into its portfolio. When Cox Automotive’s deal is finalized as projected during the third quarter, Dealertrack will join Manheim, Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book, vAuto, NextGear Capital and HomeNet Automotive within the same group.

“I think it’s exciting right now mainly because our vision is extremely aligned,” Sundaram said. “That’s the part that is motivating all of us. It’s a great company.

“You can use all kinds of words to describe it, but it does feel a little unique to put it mildly to be the acquiree, if I could use that word,” he continued. “But it’s exciting to talk about this with our clients. Strategically, it’s fantastic. There are a lot of complementary businesses and solutions, which really help us to set things up.”

Like Cox leadership, Sundaram described how Dealertrack approaches the design and implementation of products and services not only for dealerships but finance companies as well.

“One of the core values we have is being open, a so-called open system standpoint, whether the DMS or anything else,” Sundaram said. “Our relationship with (Cox Automotive) has been very similar to our relationship with several other industry players who want to engage with us.

“It’s been very good in both directions,” he added.

Sundaram also took the opportunity with Auto Remarketing to emphasize Dealertrack’s commitment to its client base. According to the company’s first-quarter financial report, 20,661 dealers use the company’s technology, as do another 1,557 finance companies.

“The message is this is an exciting opportunity from the standpoint of the benefits of this transaction are going to offer dealers and how we’re going to help dealers execute on their vision. The combined capability we’re going to bring is going to be tremendous for dealers to continue to thrive,” Sundaram said.

“You can expect us to be as committed if not more from a standpoint of helping dealers execute and thrive,” he continued.

“(Finance companies) play a critical role in Dealtrack’s success,” Sundaram went on to say. “We look forward to being an even stronger business partner with lenders. Together the broad suite of open solutions will deliver great value to lenders and their customers, which in many cases happen to be the dealers.”