[ibimage==39669==Large==none==self==null]
It was big news when Chicago-based Cars.com was sold earlier this month in a $1.8 billion deal, a deal that gave Gannett ownership over the company and gave Cars.com a $2.5 billion valuation overall. Now the question is: what will Cars.com do next?
After launching in 1997 with “a URL and an idea,” the online car buying and selling resource now has 20,000 dealer customers, 4 million new and used vehicles, and a monthly audience of 30 million, according to general manager and VP of strategy and business development Greg McGivney. Those aren’t the only numbers that have grown: “Our number of employees has also doubled in the last five years. Coming out of 2008, we’ve seen really good growth both from an employment standpoint and an opportunity standpoint with all the Cars.com colleagues,” he said.
This success points to why media holding company Gannett is spending $1.8 billion to buy out the other companies that own Cars.com. Previously, it had been part of the group called Classified Ventures that created the website—a move by Gannett and four other traditional media companies including Tribune Co. and the McClatchy Co. to harness the opportunities that online media and classified ads presented in the 1990s.
Over time, Chicago’s tech scene continued to grow, just as Cars.com and Classified Ventures’ presences continued to expand—and Gannett was watching, McGivney said.
“They definitely made a very smart buy by knowing the culture, by knowing the business, and by knowing the employees—having that long working relationship with them,” he said. “They very much see it as an investment platform to continue their leadership in the digital marketplace…. This [purchase] is kind of a key ingredient into the strategy platform that they had.”
Now, with new owners but with the same vision of helping the car-buying process to be more transparent, Cars.com is focused on growing even more.
“From that 30 million visits, we hope to grow and move into some adjacencies, meaning with our content that we have as well as the continued leadership and focus that we have in our mobile experience and mobile products,” McGivney said. “As we look into 2015 and beyond, you’ll see us continue to innovate with adjacent products that are both delivering value to our consumers and also delivering value to our key advertising clients.”
McGivney also highlighted the talents and ideas of Cars.com’s employees as crucial to the company’s success.
“A lot of things that didn’t exist five or 10 years ago from a mobility experience and mobile platform have really been through the creation and the skill set of the talent we hire at Cars.com, which then turn into great products and revenue streams in the future,” McGivney said. “We’re really happy to be based and continue to be based in Chicago and we’re looking for great talent to join the Cars.com team and continue to grow the business.”
