With plans to expand the facility by updating the showroom, adding more service capacity and increasing the display area for new- and used-vehicle inventory, Zeigler Automotive Group announced the acquisition of its 31st dealership this week.
Zeigler finalized a deal with Francis and Ralph Mauro of the International Autos Group to purchase International Subaru of Merrillville, which is being rebranded as Zeigler Subaru of Merrillville.
“With Zeigler on track to continue to grow, as we have done in previous years, adding this Subaru dealership fits perfectly into our expansion strategy, especially given its location,” Zeigler Automotive Group president Aaron Zeigler said in a news release.
The group’s new Hoosier State rooftop is located at 1777 W U.S. 30, in Merrillville, Ind., which is on the border of Illinois and Indiana where Zeigler has enjoyed steady growth during the last 15 years.
“Subaru is a coveted brand that we have long been pursuing to add to our portfolio as an offering to our customers,” Zeigler said.
Additionally, Zeigler confirmed the group will keep the acquired store’s current staff with the exception of Kyle Faiman.
Faiman, previously executive manager of INFINITI of Orland Park, will now become the Zeigler Subaru of Merrillville’s new general manager.
DealerSocket is set to have new ownership.
According to a news release distributed on Monday, Solera Holdings announced that it will acquire DealerSocket as well as Omnitracs, a complete fleet management platform.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Solera said the acquisitions are expected to close during the second quarter and are subject to definitive agreements that will include customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
With operations in more than 90 countries, Solera is a technology company operating in a highly complex vehicle lifecycle management ecosystem. Solera’s software and unique data assets power the value-chain of a vehicle from purchase to claims, repair and resale.
Company leadership said these acquisitions will build upon Solera’s strategy to minimize complexity and reduce friction at all touchpoints in the vehicle lifecycle with fully integrated intelligent technology platforms.
“Solera is the driving force behind the rapid digitization of the vehicle lifecycle, delivering intelligent, data-driven, mission-critical solutions for our customers,” Solera chief executive officer Darko Dejanovic said in the news release. “These highly strategic acquisitions will enable us to expand into adjacent verticals and capitalize on emerging trends in our industry.
“Solera’s unique position in a large and growing market allows us to transform the industry through innovation, proprietary data assets, unmatched scale and deep customer relationships,” Dejanovic continued.
Solera highlighted that the addition of DealerSocket’s platform will complete an end-to-end suite of solutions for dealerships, combining customer acquisition and retention solutions, inventory management, dealership management systems, e-titling and a unique service and maintenance platform.
“The combination of DealerSocket with Solera allows us to offer dealerships a fully unified platform to simplify workflows and enables us to become the digital backbone across all areas of a connected dealership, simplifying and improving the retail experience. We are thrilled to join the Solera team,” DealerSocket chief executive officer Sejal Pietrzak said.
With Omnitracs, Solera said it will offer a unified platform that encompasses safety, productivity and maintenance solutions for commercial fleets.
“By joining Solera, Omnitracs will be able to further extend our converged solutions, both in and on the vehicle, into fleet lifecycle management services while also extending our access to new markets,” Omnitracs chief executive officer Ray Greer said.
Kirkland & Ellis is advising Solera on the acquisition. Greenberg Traurig is serving as legal counsel to Omnitracs and Ropes & Gray is serving as legal counsel to DealerSocket.
HGreg.com showed again on Wednesday why it’s one of the fastest-growing automotive groups in North America.
The company announced that it has acquired Buena Park Nissan and Puente Hills Nissan, two established retailers located in the greater Los Angeles area.
According to a news release, the total value of the investment, including a robust inventory and renovations to upgrade to the next-generation storefront design, is estimated at a value of more than $100 million.
Company leadership said the acquisition enables HGreg to continue its growth plans for the West Coast, expand its inventory of quality, pre-owned vehicles and, ultimately, help customers save more, drive happier and enjoy the omnichannel vehicle buying journey that it has committed to streamlining.
“The response we’ve received since opening our first storefront and fulfillment center in L.A. last December has been astounding,” HGreg.com president and chief executive officer John Hairabedian said in the news release. “It certainly contributed to driving us forward, and faster, in our expansion plans.”
Effective immediately, the company said these locations will also offer the in-person and online services that HGreg.com has become known for including:
—Same-day delivery
—Contactless car-buying options
—Five-day money-back policy
—Payment by cryptocurrency
—Access to a deep and varied assortment of quality, carefully inspected pre-owned vehicles.
“Adding transparency throughout the car-buying journey, especially online, helps our customers truly enjoy their experience,” Hairabedian said. “It also gives them the confidence and reassurance that they can do this again – just as easily – whenever they’re looking to upgrade their vehicle or adjust their lifestyle.”
Located at 6501 Auto Center Drive in Buena Park, Calif., and 17320 Gale Ave in Industry, Calif., the new locations will be known as HGreg Nissan Buena Park and HGreg Nissan Puente Hills.
The company highlighted each contains a showroom, office space, services building, multi-story parking and an inventory of more than 500 quality new and pre-owned vehicles.
From a base of 150 employees between both locations, HGreg said it is embarking on a recruitment effort to fill up to 30 additional positions.
“The company stands apart from many in the industry by insisting that sales representatives do not receive a commission based on the value of a vehicle,” HGreg said, while adding that it’s encouraging applications to be submitted at HGreg.com/careers.
KAR Global said Tuesday it has purchased Auction Frontier, the developer of the Velocicast cloud-based auction simulcast solution.
And here’s the kicker: Not only does Velocicast power KAR’s own ADESA Simulcast and Simulcast+ platforms, it also provides the technology behind the simulcast sales of more than 300 wholesale and retail auctions throughout North America and Australia.
“For over a decade, KAR has led the digital transformation of the remarketing industry, deploying powerful technologies that provide our customers with the smartest, fastest and most intuitive marketplaces for selling and sourcing inventory,” KAR chief executive officer Peter Kelly said in a news release.
“Auction Frontier has rapidly grown Velocicast to become the industry gold standard for simulcast, and we are thrilled to welcome their incredibly talented team to our organization,” Kelly said. “We have already demonstrated the power of this partnership by jointly developing ADESA Simulcast+ in 2020, the industry’s only fully-automated live-auction platform. And we look forward to supercharging the next generation of digital auction technology for our combined customers.”
Auction Frontier was founded in 2015. KAR began its partnership with Auction Frontier in 2016. ADESA Simulcast was launched three years later.
“We’re thrilled to join the KAR Global family, and look forward to bringing even greater value to our customers through expanded capabilities, integrations and functionality on our Velocicast platform,” Auction Frontier president Scott Blatter said in a news release.
“Since inception, our focus at Auction Frontier has been on building a simulcast ‘done right’ solution — giving buyers and sellers everything they need to be successful right at their fingertips,” Blatter said. “And now, backed by the full power of KAR’s diverse portfolio of marketplace technologies, services and solutions, we’ll be able to rapidly accelerate future innovation.”
Auto Remarketing will have more on this developing story.
Brodie Cobb, the founder and chief executive officer of The Presidio Group, joins the Auto Remarketing Podcast to discuss why the dealership buy-sell market has been so hot over the last six to nine months.
Cobb also addresses the potential for buyers coming in from outside the industry and much more.
Plus, he explains what made the recent Lithia Motors acquisition of The Suburban Collection somewhat unique.
To listen to this episode, click on the link available below, or visit the Auto Remarketing Podcast page.
Download and subscribe to the Auto Remarketing Podcast on iTunes or on Google Play.
Editor's note: Includes updated figure from Lithia on total acquired annualized revenues.
Lithia Motors & Driveway has expanded its presence in the Southwest with the purchase of Avondale Nissan in Phoenix.
The acquisition announced Tuesday would add $75 million in annualized revenue for the retailer. Lithia’s purchases since launching a five-year plan nine months ago add up to annualized revenues of more than $4.1 billion, the retailer said.
“We are excited to welcome the high-performing Avondale Nissan team to the Lithia Motors & Driveway family,” Lithia president and chief executive officer Bryan DeBoer said in a news release.
“Their dedication to earning customers for life while making a positive impact in their local community, exemplifies our core values,” he said.
DeBoer added: “The pipeline of acquisition targets that meet our hurdle rates is the most active we have ever seen.
“We are ahead of our target of acquiring $4 billion in annualized revenues each year and are well on our way to reaching our plan of $50 billion in revenue and $50 earnings per share."
Lithia financed the purchase through capital it raised in concurrent equity and debt offerings in late 2020.
This purchase follows Lithia’s acquisition of Fink Automotive Group in Florida earlier this month.
Lithia announced in February that it has purchased a Land Rover dealership and a Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram store from Fields Auto Group. Both locations are in the Orlando, Fla., area. Lithia also opened a previously awarded Infiniti store in downtown Los Angeles.
A trio of dealerships changed hands this week with transactions involving Group 1 Automotive, Qvale Auto Group and US Auto Trust.
According to a news release from Group 1, the publicly traded company expanded its retail business presence in Massachusetts with the acquisition of two Toyota dealerships. The dealerships are located in Hyannis and Orleans on Cape Cod.
Group 1 indicated these stores are expected to generate approximately $120 million in annualized revenues.
“We are excited to grow our scale in New England with two additional stores and expand our long-standing partnership with Toyota,” Group 1 president and chief executive officer Earl Hesterberg said in the news release.
The company noted the acquisition of these stores brings Group 1’s total U.S. Toyota dealership count to 15 and increases the total representation in New England to 10 dealerships, which includes the Audi, BMW, Lexus, Subaru, and Toyota brands.
And in another transaction, the Presidio Group said in a separate news release that the investment bank specializing in retail automotive and related M&A transactions exclusively advised Bruce Qvale on the sale of his Jaguar Land Rover Stevens Creek dealership franchises to US Auto Trust.
The move to acquire the Silicon Valley rooftop expands US Auto Trust’s presence in California as the company also owns the Jaguar Land Rover Newport Beach dealership franchises.
“We were delighted to have the opportunity to acquire our second Jaguar Land Rover dealership in California,” US Auto Trust President Matt Kaiser said in the news release from the Presidio Group. “This strategic acquisition expanded our dealership footprint into the highly-desirable San Jose market.”
The Qvale Auto Group was founded by Bruce Qvale’s father, Kjell Qvale, in 1947 to import MG sports cars and later the VW Beetle to the West Coast. Kjell Qvale was the co-founder and chairman of the first Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and is a member of the British Sports Car Hall of Fame.
“The Qvale family has a storied history in the California auto industry,” said Brodie Cobb, Founder and chief executive officer of the Presidio Group. “Working with Bruce Qvale to find the right buyer for this exceptional luxury dealership was a privilege.”
George Karolis, president of the Presidio Group, added, “We were honored to work with Bruce Qvale to make this transaction happen. Luxury brands such as Jaguar and Land Rover are in high demand and the closing of this transaction is another reflection of the strength of the dealership M&A market.”
Bruce Qvale described why he asked Presidio Group to be involved.
“We turned to the Presidio Group to find the right buyer for our San Jose dealership because of their expertise and knowledge of the market,” said Qvale, who president of Qvale Auto Group. “Presidio’s process and professionalism are second to none.”
Now that this deal is closed, the Presidio Group is turning its attention to its next deal.
“Presidio has now represented our clients in the sale of nine franchises in 2021, with many more transactions currently in process. We expect 2021 to be one of the most active years on record for automotive M&A,” Karolis said.
Lithia Motors & Driveway announced Tuesday the retailer has acquired Fink Automotive Group, a move that continues to bolster Lithia’s presence in the Southeast.
The group, based in the Tampa, Fla., area, is led by president Scott Fink and includes Hyundai of New Port Richey among its dealerships.
That store, which was featured as Auto Remarketing’s CPO Dealer of the Year in 2014, has been Hyundai’s largest U.S. volume dealer for eight straight years.
Lithia anticipates the addition of the Fink Auto Group stores will likely add annualized revenues of $430 million. It also brings the retailer’s Southeast Region revenue above $1 billion.
The purchase includes five locations and seven franchises (two Hyundai, two Genesis and one each of Chevrolet, Volkswagen and Mazda), The Presidio Group, which advised Fink on the sale, confirmed via email.
Lithia explained via email that it grouped the Genesis franchises with the Hyundai locations.
“We are excited to welcome Scott Fink and his high-performing teams to the Lithia & Driveway family,” Lithia Motors & Driveway president and chief executive Bryan DeBoer said in a news release from the retailer. “Their unparalleled commitment to serving their local communities and providing the highest level of customer service exemplifies Lithia & Driveway’s core values.”
Lithia had previously announced a five-year plan to hit $50 billion in revenue $50 in earnings per share. Since the launch of that plan, the retailer has reached $4 billion in total expected annualized revenue acquired.
“Four months ahead of schedule, we are excited to announce that we have achieved the annual network growth target of acquiring $4 billion in expected annualized revenue,” DeBoer said in the release. “The acquisition market remains robust, and we are well-positioned to continue the acceleration of our network growth strategy.”
Lithia financed the purchase through capital it raised in concurrent equity and debt offerings in late 2020.
In a Presidio news release, Scott Fink said: “The buy-sell market is especially strong right now and we knew that joining efforts with a larger group was the best way to ensure that our dealerships will continue to be market leaders in today’s fast-changing auto retail environment.
“Lithia has the resources to elevate our dealerships to the next level of sophistication.”
He added: “We chose to work with The Presidio Group because they are consummate professionals with extensive experience in advising on multi-dealership transactions and, just as importantly, a strong track record of identifying the right buyer for each business.”
Lithia’s purchase follows another Florida-based acquisition by the public retailer last month. Lithia announced it bought a Land Rover dealership and a Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram store from Fields Auto Group. Both locations are in the Orlando area.
And now, Lithia has more than doubled its presence in the Southeast with the Fink Auto Group purchase, Presidio said in its release.
“We were very pleased to once again work with The Presidio Group on an important strategic acquisition,” DeBoer said. “The addition of Fink Automotive Group gives us a greatly expanded foothold in the key Southeast region.
“We are excited to welcome Fink Auto Group’s employees to the Lithia family, especially Scott Fink, who will work with Lithia to continue our expansion in the Southeast.”
Presidio provided exclusive M&A advisory services to Fink through Presidio Merchant Partners, LLC, its wholly owned investment bank.
“Scott is a long-time friend and I was especially pleased to work with him to find the right buyer for his stellar collection of dealerships,” said George Karolis, president of The Presidio Group, in a news release. “He is one of the best dealers in the country and Tampa is one of the hottest markets, as evidenced by the success of his ‘Giant’ Hyundai store in New Port Richey. We knew these franchises would complement Lithia’s portfolio perfectly.”
Added Presidio founder and CEO Brodie Cobb, “We were honored to assist Scott in the sale of his award-winning franchises. This move allows him to continue to utilize his knowledge and experience in the dealership world through working with Lithia.”
The busy year for automotive M&A activity continues. And once again, it’s on the tech side of the market.
Digital Air Strike said Wednesday it has purchased digital inventory SaaS provider LotVantage, and it will announce the acquisition of BestRide.com on Thursday.
The latter is a Gannett-owned automotive marketplace that allows consumers to search online for vehicles at dealerships throughout the U.S.
The purchase of BestRide.com, which is connected to the auto classifieds of more than 200 U.S. media platforms, would mean Digital Air Strike would have its first consumer-facing property.
The purchase is the sixth M&A deal Digital Air Strike has made since its 2010 debut.
In a news release, Digital Air Strike said that integrating its technology that of BestRide’s can, “give automotive retailers a better way to showcase their inventory, market dealers that offer at-home test drives/purchasing/delivery, while providing enhanced online shopping options to combat online-only preowned vehicle retailers like Vroom and Carvana.”
Digital Air Strike co-founder and chief executive officer Alexi Venneri said in the release, “Our technology allows dealers and consumers to communicate, engage, and transact virtually, and the acquisition of BestRide.com only furthers that objective.
“The combination of Digital Air Strike’s industry-leading intelligent lead response and consumer engagement A.I. technology, along with BestRide.com’s massive online inventory of both preowned and new vehicles from trusted, local dealers, creates the ideal consumer auto-buying experience,” she said.
“This further supports our strategy to drive value for dealers and consumers throughout the car-buying journey.”
Digital Air Strike is purchasing the platform from Gannett.
In the release, Jeff Urgo — who is vice president of Local IQ Automotive, a division of Gannett — said: “BestRide.com will continue to be a great resource for our millions of readers looking to purchase a vehicle. Digital Air Strike has been a valuable partner whose work with the automotive industry will only enhance the consumer and dealership experience on BestRide.com.”
As for the deal announced Wednesday, LotVantage’s technology provides dealerships — including those selling autos, RV, marine and powersports products — an effective way to merchandise inventory via advanced targeting and data analytics, Digital Air Strike said.
The purchase of LotVantage allows Digital Air Strike to “expand upon its offering to enable the hyper-local and targeted syndication of inventory through marketplaces such as eBay, YouTube, and Craigslist,” Digital Air Strike said.
Those marketplaces would augment the company’s existing list of partners, which includes the likes of Facebook, Instagram and Amazon OTT.
“The acquisition of LotVantage’s inventory technology solutions supports our strategy of giving our clients extremely efficient and highly-targeted online marketing solutions that leverage our technology to pair specific inventory with data-driven platforms,” Venneri said in a news release. “When you combine this proven inventory distribution technology with our ability to showcase and nurture leads in real-time, leveraging the Amazon network on top streaming shows and live sports, as well as on popular shopping sites, our clients get a real advantage over their competitors.”
LotVantage founder and CEO Matthew Brown said, “After more than a dozen years of pioneering affordable classified and digital solutions for dealers, I am excited that LotVantage is now part of the Digital Air Strike family of companies.
“LotVantage’s focus on industry partnerships and innovative inventory distribution is a logical fit for Digital Air Strike’s existing offerings. The combining of solutions will offer dealers even more opportunity to increase awareness and drive more sales for their dealerships.”
On the heels of introducing a solution aimed to turn high volumes of industry information into easy-to-understand, actionable insights for dealers, OEMs and third-party software developers, CDK Global on Monday completed the acquisition of Austin, Texas-based Square Root for an undisclosed amount.
The acquisition is viewed as an accelerator for Neuron, which CDK says can empower dealers and OEMs to sell and service more vehicles by helping them create more personalized and differentiated customer experiences.
Founded in 2006, Square Root is the creator of CoEFFICIENT, which is designed to assist OEM field managers with understanding and acting on unique data patterns and opportunities for retailers in their markets.
“The acquisition of Square Root is another important step in our efforts to build innovative solutions for dealers and OEMs that allow them to manage, analyze and grow their businesses,” CDK president and chief executive officer Brian Krzanich said in a news release.
“The technology, customers and top talent at Square Root will play an important role in helping us accelerate the expansion of our open Neuron intelligent data platform, which is designed to turn billions of pieces of industry information into actionable insights and valuable products for the automotive industry through Fortellis,” Krzanich continued.
The Neuron platform uses an analytics engine powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning to create real-time and predictive insights that empower dealers and OEMs to sell and service more vehicles by creating personalized and differentiated customer experiences.
With more than 280 connectors processing 90 million data points daily, CDK said Square Root’s software is proven at scale. The company is looking for Square Root to contribute to processing and delivering insights from the billions of data transactions already flowing into Neuron through CDK Global core products, such as CDK Drive, CDK Service and Elead CRM.
CDK went on to mention Neuron will also harness the power of Square Root’s integrations through the Fortellis Automotive Commerce Exchange to accelerate the creation of new products in the industry and to continuously enhance the user experience and value of existing products.
“Our values at Square Root are to think big, do bigger, be customer inspired, partner and thrive,” said Chris Taylor, founder and chief executive officer of Square Root.
“By joining CDK Global, we get a tremendous opportunity to become part of a company that has done just that at unmatched scale for decades. We look forward to joining forces with an industry leader to help build out its next-generation automotive ecosystem,” Taylor went on say as he and the Square Root team will retain their office location in Austin, Texas, and will integrate its operations into CDK over the next several weeks.
For more details, visit cdkglobal.com.
