AutoTrader.com Agrees to Buy HomeNet Automotive

[Stuart]

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 ??

 

[Gretchen Kennedy]

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

 

[LarryBruce]

@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.

 

[Eric Miltsch (blog)]

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?"

 

[JCollins]

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?

 

[LarryBruce]

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.

 

[Rob Fontano (blog)]

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.

 

[JCollins]

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!

 

[DP]

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

 

[Todd Mathews]

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.