To borrow some dealership vernacular, the delivery of Dealertrack Technologies to Cox Automotive finally rolled over the curb on Thursday morning.

Cox Automotive said it completed its acquisition of Dealertrack in an all-cash tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of Dealertrack.

The transaction is valued at approximately $4 billion, or $63.25 per share of Dealertrack common stock.  As of Thursday, the common stock of Dealertrack will cease trading and will no longer be listed on the NASDAQ Global Market.

Also coming to fruition on Thursday, Dealertrack completed the sale of its Inventory+ business to DealerSocket in an all-cash transaction for approximately $55 million. 

Under the terms of that deal, the divested Inventory+ assets include the AAX product in the U.S. and Canada, as well as eCarlist websites. In addition, officials indicated approximately 200 employees transition to DealerSocket with this sale.

Various regulatory hurdles as well as securing a majority of tendered Dealertrack stockholder delayed culmination of Cox Automotive’s acquisition five times since the company first announced the move back in June. Now executives highlighted  that together Cox Automotive and Dealertrack will have even broader capabilities for helping customers navigate a rapidly changing automotive marketplace and grow their business across the value chain.

They added the combined companies will provide comprehensive, open-choice solutions that drive efficiency and deliver greater value to consumers, dealers, finance companies, manufacturers and the overall automotive industry.

“The team members from Dealertrack have built an outstanding company and I am excited to welcome them to the Cox family. This combination will truly open new doors for our clients, team members and the industry as we drive even greater innovation and provide even better solutions to our clients,” Cox Automotive president Sandy Schwartz said in the news release.

“Our goal is a seamless transition, and over the coming months our integration teams will work to capture the best of both organizations,” Schwartz continued. “Starting today, we are moving forward as one organization that is passionately pro-industry, committed to open choice and dedicated to strong partnerships.”

Dealertrack chairman and chief executive officer Mark O’Neil also shared his assessment of what the uniting with Cox Automotive means.

“This combination brings together some of the best people in the industry with strong common values,” O’Neil said.

“I want to extend my appreciation to all of our Dealertrack team members for the foundation they have built, and thank my new Cox Automotive colleagues for the warm welcome as we join our new family,” he continued. “Working together, we will fully unlock the potential of our combined brands and teams to serve our clients.”

BDT & Company and Citigroup Global Markets served as financial advisors, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as legal counsel to Cox Automotive.  Evercore acted as financial advisor and O'Melveny & Myers served as legal advisor to Dealertrack.

The deal came to a close less than two days after the Department of Justice created a pathway as well as instructing Cox Automotive in regard to using Dealertrack’s interest in Chrome Data Solutions.

Meanwhile, DealerSocket is not new to the acquisition business.

In an attempt to present customers with a complete automotive platform, DealerSocket acquired DealerFire, FEX DMS, and AutoStar Solutions in January, February and May of this year. The company insisted the addition of Inventory+ bolsters DealerSocket’s platform.

DealerSocket CEO Jonathan Ord stressed that Inventory+ is an innovative and comprehensive inventory management solution that can provide dealers data insight and analytics with rich mobile and workflow capabilities. The Inventory+ TrueTarget and TrueScore features can help dealers “win in the marketplace” by assisting them stock the right vehicles at the right time and at the right price.

“We are pleased to be enhancing DealerSocket's extensive website solutions, customer relationship management, training and DMS solutions with the highly complementary inventory management services available through Inventory+,” Ord said.

“We look forward to welcoming the Inventory team to our organization and to working together to ensure a smooth transition for our new customers,” he went on to say.