Burlington-based Dealer.com, a marketing, Web-development and software firm serving the auto industry, fetched nearly $1 billion this week when it was sold to Dealertrack Technologies of Lake Success, N.Y.
The deal was valued at $987 million, consisting of $620 million in cash and 8.7 million shares of Dealertrack stock, which trades on the Nasdaq stock market under the ticker TRAK.
Dealer.com co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Mike Lane told the Burlington Free Press the company is committed to keeping much of its operations in Burlington.
“A lot of this is about the people,” Lane told the Free Press. “Dealer.com is going to stay here. We’re not going anywhere.”
Founded in 1998, Dealer.com serves 7,000 auto dealers nationwide and has 830 employees, with 700 working at their Burlington headquarters. The company also has offices in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
“This is a very exciting opportunity for Dealer.com,” Dealer.com CEO Rick Gibbs said in a statement on the Dealertrack website. “By combining our strengths with Dealertrack, we will be able to enhance our marketplace offering with an integrated, end-to-end solution that will help bring the automotive retailing industry to a new level of efficiency and performance.”
Following news of the acquisition, Dealertrack stock is trading at an all-time high, up 7 percent to nearly $50 a share, according to the Nasdaq website.