Cars.com Inc has closed the acquisition of the Accu-Trade Group, which was announced last month. The Accu-Trade Group includes real-time, VIN-specific appraisal and valuation data, instant guaranteed offer capabilities and logistics technology.
CARS paid $65 million at the closing today, which was funded using a combination of cash on hand and revolver draw. There may be future payments of up to an additional $63 million, which may be higher or lower based on actual performance, to be earned over the next three years.
“The acquisition of Accu-Trade appraisal technology facilitates our entry into the rapidly growing multi-billion digital vehicle acquisition market,” said Alex Vetter, Chief Executive Officer of CARS. “The acquisition of this scalable technology further advances our platform strategy and accelerates our end to end capabilities, while building on our competitive advantages and delivering additional shareholder value.”
CARS will be launching new sell it yourself capabilities, giving the approximately 11 million annual private-party car sellers in the U.S. the option to sell to another consumer or to one of thousands of certified dealers. The new Accu-Trade technology will be featured next week at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) conference and integrated across our platform shortly following the show.
Learn more about the acquisition here.