I have to agree with Larry here. It does seem very disingenuous for a representative of one of the companies involved to jump into this discussion with the "thanks for the support" and "we are looking forward to great things" corporate talking points. To assume that the driving force behind this, and the other acquisitions, was anything other than profit driven is extremely naive. With regard to the comments on the job security of the newly acquired personnel; following the Honeymoon period (9 months to a year) there will a significant number of layoffs. Typically the new ownership looks to keep 10-15% of the original staff - and that's usually the younger, talented, and lower paid employees.

@Tammy – I see now, thanks for clearing that up. I am with you Tammy I hope the employees that worked hard to get Homenet where it is today don't get the shaft, however that is inevitable. Some will get let go some will move on that is the nature of things, good luck to all of them.

I appreciate you optimism although I don't share it.

@Todd – Thanks for the support, it is much appreciated although I don't like being right about things that hurt dealers so much I rather be wrong here, unfortunately ATC’s actions support me being right in this case.

Dealers need to limit their exposure with ATC and now the companies they own as much as they can. Better to do that now and have options than to be deep with this company and have your bill go through the roof and service through the floor then have to scramble put new strategies in place, the name of the game here “DERVISIFY”.

Move some of your budget to eBay and start leaning what it takes to be successful there while you can make mistakes if you are already there put a bigger focus on it.

Look and talk to new inventory export providers while you have time to make the right deal.

Look and talk to new inventory management companies while you have time as well.

Don't wait until the hammer drops be proactive and put yourself in the right position to make a good decision.

I apologize for the redundancy on my part here, but it's has to be echoed that again and again. This is move to drive an IPO or in the case of many other large Corp companies is to drive stock prices. I really feel for the folks in the companies being acquired because as in the case of Homenet, they are a first class company with a first class leader in Jesse Bitter (I have know Jesse personally for many years) and we want to believe the honeymoon speeches of how this is good for everyone etc. But my experiences tells me a whole different story and again please just approach it all with your eyes wide open, in the end you may thank me.

Larry Bruce; let's look back at your comments in 2 years within the post and it will prove how on the money you regarding this topic. If anyone wants to bet on that, my money is on Larry.

Larry,

I should have been more specific instead of replying in general. I was referring to comments "their employees who have gone above and beyond to exceed my expectations time after time dont get shafted","I hope only the best for my many friends at Homenet thru any changes". It was not my intent to infer that everyone supported the acquisition or even HomeNet in general. I completely understand the frustration and speculation of changes, but as I've said, I'm optimistic some great innovative changes could be introduced into the automotive space with the combined resources.

Tammy did you even read the post or the comments? I had to go back thru and read to see there were any positive comments or support.

Did I miss one?

Is this what dealers can expect the corp. glad hand? Do you really think that if you keep thanking us for our support that somehow you will get it?

I don't understand either of the comments from Homenet.

@all
I just want to say "thanks" for the positive comments about HomeNet Automotive in general and for the goodwill generated towards our employees during this transition; we appreciate your support. While it is still early, the plan is to remain operating independently,and I am confident (and extremely optimistic and excited) we can find a way to incorporate some of the combined resources to offer/support more robust solutions in the automotive space. The opportunities seem endless when you really think about it; I, personally, will do all I can to ensure all the opportunities are thought out.
Thanks again for your support.

Tammy DeFazio
Director, Client Services
HomeNet Automotive, LLC

@Jeff I understand, I have heard the same things out of a lot of dealers and the same lack of results for a lot of work.

@All - Keep in mind ATC isn't a technology company and it isn't a web marketing company it is at its root a magazine that had a base and too that base online lower its distribution cost and charging more money. So ask yourself what do you think they are really going to be able to do with more technology and more data?

We have all seen many large technology companies in this industry swallow ONE good product or company only to later bastardize it and eventually kill it, what do you think a non-technology company is going to do with 3 of them?

The fact is that this is not about giving dealers a better product or more help, this is strictly about getting to a top line number that makes for a good IPO and the Top cat cashing out leaving whoever is left to figure that out, if they can.

For the money I see dealers spending with ATC you are better off taking that money with a good strategy to eBay motors, the visitors there are far more engaging than ATC for a lot of reasons I won't go into in this comment.

Get out of ATC before you lose more money. It's just like when you got out of the paper you'll tense up in anticipation of the business drop only to find it doesn’t and you'll find a lot for efficient uses for the money you were spending with ATC.

As I posted in a previous post, if you work for any of these companies you would do yourself a favor by going into these acquisitions with your eyes wide open and know that AT already has a sell channel in place and it's much cheaper to consolidate ALL products into the existing sells channel rather than have several channels selling the products individually. I have been there and done that and many of my friends bought into the honeymoon speech placed lost their jobs. Not trying to rain on the parade, but that's reality.

It scares me to see these wonderful independent, home grown organizations be acquired by ATC. Their track record is very weak( Auto Mart/Auto Trader) and senior leadership is comprised by the most unintelligent humans you could ever expect. Hopefully these folks who led that merger (Ian, Joe) have been put out to pasture. I wish these folks the very best of luck and hope that fate will treat them much better than it did the 3,500 employees who lost their jobs for no good reason

Larry- As always you are correct. It's principle and personal now.

Rob- If you include what is co-op'd there is no ROI. It's a money pit. AT collects just over $10k for our services $6400 of which is paid by our IMR acct. 10 times earnings with IMR participation 3 times earnings without. Keep in mind that you need to factor in the amount of time and brain damage associated with updating your spotlight ads, special offers and dynamic display ads. The back of my neck is tensing up just thinking about it.

There site absolutely crawls at a snails pace making said updates such a pain in the ass!

I'm curiuos, how many people in this discussion can show an accurate ROI year to date that makes AT a worthy investment for your dealership.

Jeff they did you a favor the Alpha program is a joke. If you look at everything ATC has brought to your deaelrship you will see that it is no more than cheap magazine tricks they have brought online.

Get rid of your alpha program and Autotrader entirely and compete with them for the customer, they don't have the footprint they want you to belive.

As it stands I'm not able to bring any positive comments to the forum concerning AutoTrader. Yesterday my AT Rep paid me a visit to let me know that I had lost our Alpha

to a dealer outside of our PMA!! If you think you have first right of refusal, you don't. Ofcourse they played the "Read your Agreement" card. There is a disclaimer for dealers with a discounted rate waiving first rights of refusal. We have several agreements that were executed by AT that DO NOT have our initials acknowledging that we understand we have waived our rights of refusal. Even after AT was made aware that the agreements had not been acknowledged by us they stood firm. This is bad business. What are your thoughts?

Have to agree w/Larry..

If we met in person Gretchen & started talking about this topic, I doubt you'd talk like that.

All vendors are "collaboratively diligent" these days.

I'm hoping this all-star power company shows us stuff that makes us say "Holy crap I need that" rather than just "Oh, how much more is that gonna cost?"

@Gretchen

While I applaud your willingness to jump in here Gretchen, doing so with such an obvious company line is almost insulting in some ways.

You want us to believe talk to us not at us with a company written piece.

Thanks for the effort though.

Although we’re becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of AutoTrader.com, HomeNet will remain an independent entity and operate as usual.

HomeNet and AutoTrader.com have been partners for several years, and in the last year have been working diligently on a collaborative solution to enable all dealers to upload more of their inventory data faster and more easily to AutoTrader. By sharing our technology, we make ATC more valuable to active consumers, thus exposing your inventory to more eager buyers.

HomeNet now benefits from having AutoTrader.com’s considerable resources at our disposal as we continue to grow and create more innovative products that help you sell more cars and save time.

We greatly value your loyalty, and we want to assure you that you can expect the same top notch products and customer service you've experienced from us in the past.

The bottom line is we look forward to ensuring this relationship is a resounding success for all concerned… you, most of all!

Gretchen Kennedy

Director of Marketing

HomeNet Automotive, LLC

I hope with the Trader behind them their employees who have gone above and beyond to exceed my expectations time after time dont get shafted if it wasn't for their stellar effort I would have fired them years ago.

I wish the entire team over there good luck in this transition.

And is anyone taking bets on who gets acquired next? Boy they sure are creating a monopoly huh ??

If I where one of the emplyoee (especially) sales reps of one of the companiies just purchased I would be looking for a new gig within the next year. The honeymoon will last about a year and then the consolidation will begin. When ADP purchased BZ Results back in 2006 it took about a year before the honeymoon ended and then the ax was pulled and the whacking began

This acquisition is different from KBB and vAuto in the sense that ATC managers will be running Homenet directly.

Given the deep integration that currently exists between HomeNet and ATC, I think the management move highlights the big plans that ATC has for homenet.

what do you all think?

I would predict that, from a dealer's perspective, there will be very little in the way of noticable changes in innovation. Where the most obvious change will come from will probably be in the interaction with the reps. The reps for AutoTrader, vAuto, KBB, and now HomeNet will begin to cross-promote the other products, particularly with special offers to combine product offerings. And there will no doubt be a consolidation of effort and manpower so that the logical next step would be for one rep to be able to sell (and get paid on) all products. A likely scenario: AutoTrader offers HomeNet in a "bundled" package at a slightly reduced price - and says "We accept inventory feeds from HomeNet every hour (or in real time) all others are once a day, 5 days a week". You can decide if you think that this is a positive or a negative from the dealer's perspective.

@Larry,

I can appreciate how your experiences w/the corp. red tape skews your optimism...

I'm also hoping to see more of the value-added features that a site like AutoTrader should have - without adding any additional costs.

It has been over a year since AutoTrader had a inventory management and export tool, so it makes sense that they would buy one instead of reinventing the wheel, but like so many of the discussions regarding AT I have to ask "How much?"

AT is and has been the most expensive line on Internet marketing budgets for a long time. Most dealers are in the "you just have to have them" boat.

If AT decides to incorporate some of these new technologies into their existing product and give dealers a real sense of value and enhanced results then great, But if these new acquisitions mean another $1,500 a month ad on (Trade in Market Place) Then it would have to be something that actually worked and produced a worthy ROI. If not then they may simply be diluting a product that’s value has been in question for quite some time.

google Oxymoron.

you'll find "AutoTrader.com and innovative product releases"

get ready for your rate increase calls.

Competition is key in this arena. Just as the Dealer Specialties type of work has gone internal with several dealers, it will only benefit them to move inventory hosting there as well. HomeNet is a good company but there is no reason many dealers couldn't replicate the idea - as long as the vendors (ATC, Cars, etc.) getting the finalized inventory can establish and accept a standard industry wide import protocol.

Are there suggestions for an industry standard inventory export/import process anywhere yet?

@Eric

Agreed, there is the potential for great product and learning with the data that is collected from the sites ATC has acquired.

Having been thru corp. bureaucracy in the past and the competing agendas of acquisitions, I am not putting much hope that ATC will bring anything more than higher pricing with little value.

For the dealers I hope I am wrong.