CarsDirect.com Acquires Autodata, Premier Automotive Software and Data Firm.SHERMAN OAKS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 18, 1999-- First Internet Car Company Gains Exclusive Rights to Powerful New Technology Designed to Enhance Customer Service, Deliver Most Accurate Online Information CarsDirect.com, the first Internet car company, Wednesday announced that it has acquired the Canadian firm Autodata Marketing Systems Incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. , effective immediately. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Autodata, which is based in London, Ontario, collects information on vehicles, creates software solutions and develops Web-based businesses and products for automobile manufacturers, fleet management companies and auto dealers in Canada and the United States The United States and Canada share a unique legal relationship. U.S. law looks northward with a mixture of optimism and cooperation, viewing Canada as an integral part of U.S. economic and environmental policy. . Its customers include virtually every auto manufacturer in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . Autodata's "AutoLink" service provides real-time and ongoing access to complete and timely vehicle data in whatever format a customer's software and database applications require. No other company has the data, tools or technological ability to provide such high quality custom vehicle databases. Given this expertise and dominant North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. market share, Autodata's technologies have become the standard for deploying complex vehicle databases and applications. "Autodata offers the most comprehensive, extensive automobile data and technology on the market -- it's head and shoulders above anything else available, as the company's unparalleled customer acceptance demonstrates," said Scott Painter, chief executive officer, CarsDirect.com. "Through this acquisition, CarsDirect.com can provide its U.S. online car shoppers with a level of customer service, choice and relevant information never before offered in this category. This addition to our organization will empower browsers, shoppers and buyers, and deliver an experience that is qualitatively different from anything currently available online." Under the terms of the acquisition, Autodata will continue as an autonomous and going concern, focused on providing "best in class" auto-data related solutions to vehicle manufacturers, fleet companies and dealers, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Gregory Perrier, president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Autodata. As a testament to this focus, Autodata will change its name to Autodata Solutions Company. The Autodata executive team, led by Perrier and Vice President Chris Wedermann, will continue to manage the company. "Autodata welcomes this acquisition as it will provide the necessary technical and financial resources to expand globally as a supplier of solutions to the automobile industry automobile industry, the business of producing and selling self-powered vehicles, including passenger cars, trucks, farm equipment, and other commercial vehicles. ," Perrier said. CarsDirect.com has already begun its deployment of Autodata's proprietary automobile "Comparator comparator Instrument for comparing something with a similar thing or with a standard measure, in particular to measure small displacements in mechanical devices. In astronomy, the blink comparator is used to examine photographic plates for signs of moving bodies. ," that enables car buyers to compare features, options and prices on two or more vehicles, as well as its "Configurator," that enables car shoppers to build the exact car they want, feature-by-feature. CarsDirect.com will also gain access to soon-to-be-released technologies currently under development. Together, these technologies let online car buyers view color vehicle interior and exterior images, digital video clips, vehicle brand stories including news releases and reviews, equipment features, dimensions, specification and prices. Shoppers can then compare other makes and models of comparably-equipped vehicles. While existing solutions assume that consumers already know which vehicle they want, a third key Autodata technology, the user-friendly "Selector (programming) selector - 1. In Smalltalk or Objective C, the syntax of a message which selects a particular method in the target object. 2. An operation that returns the state of an object but does not alter that state. ," lets car buyers find all of the vehicles that meet any of their price, payment or feature requirements. "Through these new technologies, CarsDirect.com online shoppers will be able to simply select their desired price range, features and options, and cars of every make and model that meet those requirements will appear on their computer screen, in a side-by-side comparison," said Painter. "Let's say you want a pickup. Rather than having to first decide on a make and model, you plug in the features you want, and we will show you all the pickups that have those features. We'll help you find the vehicle that's right for you." About CarsDirect.com CarsDirect.com (http://www.carsdirect.com) is a revolutionary new Internet See Web 2.0 and Internet2. company that lets consumers complete the vehicle purchase transaction. With CarsDirect.com, shoppers can research, price, design, order and finance a new car or truck over the Web -- selecting from among 2,500 makes and models by every major manufacturer. Unlike referral services, which point people to a dealer to accomplish the transaction, CarsDirect.com takes the customer from inquiry through financing right up to delivery -- online. Based in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , CarsDirect.com is an idealab! company. Its investors include Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., or simply Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is one of the world's largest global investment banks. Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869, and is headquartered in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City at 85 Broad Street. , Foundation Capital, idealab! Capital Partners, MSD (MicroSoft Diagnostics) A utility that accompanied Windows 3.1 and DOS 6 that reported on the internal configuration of the PC. A variety of information on disks, video, drivers, IRQs and port addresses was provided. Capital L.P., and Primedia Ventures, among others. |
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