TrueCar Could be Acquired in the Next Month, Says Analyst
Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior reporter, covering venture capital. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks. Follow him on Twitter.
The struggling Santa Monica-based TrueCar, which operates the nation's fourth largest online automotive marketplace, is ripe for an acquisition as soon as the end of next month, according to a new research note from the global financial services firm BTIG.
"Based on our inbound call volume, we believe many investors are wondering if TRUE is now an acquisition target," wrote analyst Marvin Fong.
BTIG says the answer is a strong maybe, given that TrueCar has several attributes of an appealing takeover target, including an empty CEO seat, a small group of big shareholders who own a considerable number of shares, and an attractive set of data on shoppers that would be useful to bigger companies.
BTIG thinks a takeover could happen in the next few weeks because TrueCar's board has said it expects to name a permanent CEO by March 31, which the bank believes would be seen as a sign the company is not for sale. Even if a deal does not happen soon, BTIG puts the odds at better than 50/50 that TrueCar is not a standalone company within the next 36-48 months.
"We see the merits of this idea as the overall listings space is stagnant and cost synergies could be meaningful, making consolidation a potentially value accretive route," Fong wrote.
TrueCar has been on a wild ride since serial entrepreneur Scott Painter founded the company in 2004.
It quickly became one of L.A.'s hottest startups after it appeared to be able to disrupt the half-century-plus relationship between consumers and auto dealerships. But dealerships were not about to go quietly, and in 2012, thousands of dealers exited the TrueCar network amidst complaints about bidding wars that meant they were losing money on transactions.
Still, the company went public two years later and shares have gone from a high of $25.00 to under $3 a share this week.
Michael Darrow has served as TrueCar's interim President and CEO since Chip Perry stepped down in June. Perry had been in the post since the end of 2015, when Painter departed.
In 2018, changes to Google's search algorithm caused a steep decline in TrueCar's website traffic. Just as the company was recovering from that and improving its SEO, USAA recently announced it would end its lucrative partnership, which brought in 29% of TrueCar's unit sales, in October.
USAA remains TrueCar's fourth-largest shareholder with about 9 million shares, which represents 8.5% of the stock.
- TrueCar lays off 40 percent of staf - dot.LA ›
- George Floyd Protests: L.A.'s Tech Community Reacts - dot.LA ›
Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.
On this week's episode of Office Hours, you'll hear from Gregg Renfrew, serial entrepreneur and founder of clean beauty company, Beauty Counter. She also serves on the board of directors of Supernova, my special purpose acquisition company.
- Office Hours Podcast: Bill Gurley On Startups, Venture Capital and ... ›
- Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz on the Power of Brands and Barbie - dot.LA ›
- Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz on the Power of Brands and Barbie - dot.LA ›
On today's episode of Office Hours, hear from GOAT co-founder and CEO Eddy Lu about big, public — and most importantly, resolved — founder fights, insight on when to know it's time to pivot or quit, how GOAT differentiates itself from other sneaker ecommerce sites — and one of GOAT's early and clever growth hacks that convinced consumers the company had more merch than they actually did.
- GOAT's $100M Raise Fuels its Trendsetter Ambitions - dot.LA ›
- Office Hours Podcast: Bill Gurley On Startups, Venture Capital and ... ›
- Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz on the Power of Brands and Barbie - dot.LA ›
- Daina Trout, Health-Ade Kombucha CEO, on How to Pivot - dot.LA ›
