UPDATED: December 13, 2016 — The Banks Report has learned that the Ron Tonkin Family of Dealerships is selling to the Gee Automotive Companies in Spokane, WA, confirming rumors the last several months that a sale was in process. An announcement is expected sometime in the next few days. Meanwhile, the deal is expected to close sometime […]
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December 14, 2016 — The McLarty Automotive Group announced yesterday that it has completed the acquisition of five dealerships and two collision centers in Little Rock, AR from the Asbury Automotive Group. The acquisition brings Mark McLarty’s total to 19 dealerships — all acquired since 2014 — generating an estimated $1.4 billion a year in revenue. […]
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January 2, 2017 — Beck Chevrolet scored another big legal win last week in its five-year battle with General Motors over how it measures sales effectiveness of its dealers and the decision could have a far reaching impact on the overall relationship manufacturers have with their dealers. The ruling last week by New York’s Second […]
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January 2, 2017 — M&A activity among automotive retail vendors for the year ended quietly with only four deals completed in the fourth quarter. Nevertheless, the 31 acquisitions and investments in 2016 surpassed the 30 in 2015. The four deals in the fourth quarter include (more information about the following deals are included in the […]
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January 3, 2017 — Days prior to the opening of Detroit’s North American International Auto Show, Ford Motor Co.’s President and CEO Mark Fields dropped several bombshells outlining the automaker’s strategy the next three years. Addressing the media and UAW members at Ford’s Flat Rock, MI assembly plant, Fields announced the company is cancelling plans it […]
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January 6, 2017 — Solera Holdings announced yesterday it has acquired the British-based Autodata from Bowmark Capital and Five Arrows Principal Investments for £340 million ($418 million). Autodata, which was founded in 1975, publishes technical service and repair information to the automotive aftermarket. It licenses data from 136 manufacturers covering 32,000 different models globally. Its owners, Bowmark […]
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The autonomous and connected vehicle news coming out of the CES show this week in Las Vegas was fast and furious. The show’s automotive exhibit has become perhaps, the most important auto show in the country. In fact, CES’ growing popularity has forced both Los Angeles and Detroit to incorporate a mobility-related focus into their […]
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January 12, 2017 — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today accused Fiat Chrysler of violating the Clean Air Act by using software to hide excess diesel emissions in 104,000 vehicles. Following the news, FCA stocks dropped more than 16% forcing the halt share trading for the automaker. The EPA claims FCA installed and failed to […]
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January 15, 2017 — Two words best describe this year’s Detroit Auto Show — Trump and autonomy. The vehicles? They were nearly an afterthought during press days at the North American International Auto Show (the show’s official moniker). Despite coming on the heels of a second consecutive record breaking year for sales, the mood on […]
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January 16, 2017 — The Asbury Automotive Group is buying Hare Chevrolet and its affiliated companies — a collision center, an Isuzu dealership and a truck center. Hare Chevrolet, which sits a few miles north of Indianapolis in the town of Noblesville on State Road 37, is unique because it is the oldest family-owned transportation […]
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February 2, 2017 — As the National Automobile Dealers Assn. celebrated its 100 year anniversary at its annual convention in New Orleans last week, it capped an nine year period that might have been its toughest, yet finest hour. But 2017 brings a new set of daunting challenges. Playing Defense For the last nine years, the association […]
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February 3, 2017 — Holman Automotive is expected to name longtime BMW executive Peter Witt as its Platform Vice President for the Northeast today, The Banks Report has learned. Witt will lead Holman’s 10 dealerships in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and will report to Gene Welsh, the group’s executive vice president. Holman is one of […]
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February 3, 2017 — CDK Global’s stock price hit its all time high yesterday of $65.03 following a strong second quarter fiscal 2017 report. It settled back down to close at just over $64. The stock has been on an upward trajectory the last six months and was trading at just under $54 a share in […]
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February 4, 2017 — In what may become the year’s biggest story in automotive retail, the long simmering battle over data access in the automotive retail world escalated yesterday when a third party vendor sued tech giants CDK Global, Reynolds and Reynolds and one of their joint ventures for engaging in antitrust practices. This is the first […]
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February 20. 2017 — The industry had a scare last Thursday when it appeared that a large data breach occurred involving several dealer management system (DMS) providers and dealer groups. What actually happened was much more benign, and involved none of the DMS vendors. Nor did the event involve any sensitive personal data. The fallout, […]
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March 2, 2017 — Ron Lamb, the president of Reynolds and Reynolds, has decided to leave the automotive retail technology giant to pursue opportunities in private equity, according to a statement provided to associates earlier today. He was named president of Reynolds and Reynolds in October 2010. He began his career with Reynolds in 1991 and […]
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March 3, 2017 — The Morgan Auto Group in Tampa announced yesterday it has acquired Naples Mazda and Naples Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram from Jon and Tom Myers. The acquisitions brings Morgan’s total number of stores to 23. Since January 2016, Morgan has added 11 stores, including acquisitions of Sun Toyota, Rountree-Moore Motors and Mercedes […]
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March 18, 2017 — Although 2016 saw a slight downturn in the number of transactions from 2015, dealership buy-sell activity the last three years has stayed fairly consistent, according to data compiled by The Banks Report. And 2017 is shaping up to be on par with the previous three years. From 2015 to 2016, the […]
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April 6, 2017 — (UPDATE — SEE BELOW) Acquisition activity among automotive retail vendors has ground to a halt in the the first quarter this year, according to data compiled by The Banks Report. Other than Solera Holding’s purchase of the British-based Autodata the first week of January, there have been no investments, IPOs or acquisitions […]
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April 18, 2017 – Get ready to jam to some tunes at the next Cox Automotive economic briefing…Seriously. The company announced this morning that DJ Smokey Smoke, also known as Jonathan Smoke, is succeeding long time automotive analyst Tom Webb as its chief economist. If you haven’t heard of him, you will. Smoke, who moonlights […]
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