Gannett pays 1.8 Billion for Cars.com

Gannett, the media giant that owns TV news stations and newspapers including USA Today, has added Cars.com in its entirety to its portfolio. It purchased the remaining 73% of the automotive company from Classified Ventures LLC for 1.8 Billion. The 73% purchase means that Gannett has made its second large acquisition of the past year, following it’s purchase of Belo corp. for 2.2 Billion back in December of 2013.

The move comes as Gannett plans to divide its print and broadcast/digital holdings into two separately named spin-offs. Gracia Martore, President and CEO of Gannett said that this and other moves are intended to push the already powerful company even more forward. She explained that, “Cars.com doubles our growing digital business, while our recent acquisitions of Belo and London Broadcasting doubled our broadcasting portfolio.”

In Cars.com, Gannett gets a company that is thriving in the automotive space. A press release from Gannett indicates that Cars.com receives 30 million visitors per month, although the source of that information isn’t cited. It’s also reported that Cars.com displays some 4.3 million vehicles from 20,000 dealerships to its online clientele. Gannett clearly sees cars.com as a powerful addition. They explained in their press release on this topic that, “the automotive sector is the single largest and most important vertical (vehicle) for local advertising revenue, and Cars.com is one of the few proven and established digital solutions of scale in this market.” Putting a lot of confidence in the retail automotive industry, one has to wonder if Gannett will have more automotive industry acquisitions up their sleeve in the near future. It’s also worth wondering how this change in ownership could impact cars.com moving forward.

Look for more news on this Gannett-Cars.com purchase as more information unfolds here on DrivingSalesNews.com.