Looks like Dega has some significant competition. PartsVoice says they have 12,000 dealer clients, and now a significant parent company.
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"The Cobalt Group acquires PartsVoice - the industry leader in OEM auto parts locating and marketing."
SEATTLE (May 3, 1999) - The Cobalt Group™ , the nation's largest provider of Internet marketing solutions to automobile dealerships and manufacturers, has acquired PartsVoice®, the largest OEM auto parts locating and marketing company, the companies announced today.
The transaction will pair Cobalt's client base and dealer Web site network with the extensive parts and service data and management capabilities of PartsVoice. This transaction is revolutionary in its significance to the automotive industry. With the forging of this relationship, Cobalt becomes the first and only Internet company capable of offering online parts and service marketing on a nationwide scale as part of a comprehensive Internet solution. Consumers will be able to go to a Cobalt dealer Web site to find a new or used vehicle, locate parts and review their vehicle service history.
PartsVoice (http://www.partsvoice.com) headquartered in Portland, OR, is a parts marketing, advertising and data collection company. PartsVoice collects and processes data from approximately 12,000 dealer clients and makes the data accessible to buyers through Interactive Voice Response (IVR), PCs, and via the Internet. The PartsVoice database houses more than 35 million OEM parts for sale worldwide and handled more than 9 million parts searches during 1998.
"There are wonderful synergies between our companies that will enhance the scope of our services to our automotive dealers and manufacturer clients," said John Holt, co-CEO of The Cobalt Group (http://www.cobaltgroup.com). "With the data retrieval capabilities of PartsVoice, we can make parts and service history more accessible via the Web and reinforce our mission of offering a broader spectrum of interactive marketing services to the automotive industry."
PartsVoice was founded in 1988 and currently employs 60 people. It is the exclusive contract vendor for several manufacturers' national parts locators, including Chrysler Corporation's MOPAR division, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Volvo Truck and Toyota.
"We are thrilled to support more dealers through our relationship with Cobalt," said Alex De Lucia, president of PartsVoice. "We look forward to extending Cobalt's Internet offerings and providing new products to parts and service organizations throughout the automotive industry."
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. PartsVoice will be a wholly owned subsidiary of The Cobalt Group, said Geoffrey Barker, co-CEO of The Cobalt Group.
Barker said the companies will integrate PartsVoice data collection and management services into Cobalt's array of Internet services for its dealer clients. He said he expects very few changes at either company following the acquisition. The PartsVoice offices will remain in Portland, its management team will stay in place and the company's staff will stay intact, he said.
The Cobalt Group™ (www.cobaltgroup.com) is the nation's largest provider of Internet marketing solutions to automotive dealerships, hosting and servicing more than 8,000 dealer Web sites nationwide. Eleven auto manufacturers have endorsed its marketing system. Cobalt also owns DealerNet® (www.dealernet.com), one of the best-known automotive destination sites on the Web. Cobalt was founded in March 1995 and is backed by Warburg, Pincus Equity Partners, L.P, and First Analysis Corporation. |
