Automotive News - March 15, 2010 - 20

20 â€¢ MARCH 15, 2010 Patent settlements help Autobytel upgrade its Web sites Company aims to improve quality of dealer sales leads David Barkholz dbarkholz@crain.com Settling in CEO Jeffrey Coats: Autobytel improved its bottom line last year despite a sharp drop in revenue. told investors in a conference call last month. Coats, 52, has guided Autobytelâ€™s turnaround since December 2008. Thatâ€™s when his fellow Autobytel board members made him CEO after he had led a strategic board review of the company to determine whether it should be sold. A longtime senior executive and investor in technology companies, Coats joined the Autobytel board in 1996 when he was managing director of GE Equity Inc. Autobytel says it is benefiting from the fruits of patent infringement settlements it has won from competitors. March 2009: Agreed to license lead-generating patents to Edmunds.com in exchange for the right to publish Edmunds.com content on Autobytelâ€™s Web sites April 2009: Agreed to settlement with Insweb, Leadpoint and Internet Brands that, among other terms, calls for Insweb to share revenue from insurance purchases on its site after customers come from Autobytelâ€™s sites March 2010: Expected to receive the final $2.7 million installment in a $20 million settlement with Dealix reached in December 2006 Source: SEC filings apiece. They obtain the leads either by finding potential car buyers who undertake Web searches or by buying leads from third-party lead providers. Better leads Coats said the leads it generates on its own are better quality and more profitable than the ones its buys. He said Autobytelâ€™s internal leads have jumped ninefold since the first quarter of 2009. Last month, i.g. Burton Co., a sevenfranchise dealership group in Milford, Del., signed up with Autobytel largely because of iControl. The tool allows the dealership to focus on the kinds of buyers it desires, said Kevin Fuelling, i.g. Burton director of Internet operations. For example, if the group wants to sell more Chevrolet Silverado pickups because of inventory or incentives, iControl pulls leads from target populations that tend to buy trucks. Burton owns two Chevy dealerships, a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep store and separate Mercedes and BMW stores. â€œWe can match our leads to our market strategy,â€ Fuelling said. â€œWe can avoid getting superfluous leads from all over.â€ Autobytel promoted iControl heavily last month at the NADA convention. c Autobytel Inc., which is battling back from massive losses in 2008, is using patent infringement settlements with competitors to upgrade its Web sites. The company also is rolling out new software to improve the quality of the leads it sells to dealerships. The strategy is paying off, CEO Jeffrey Coats said last month at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in Orlando. Through cost-cutting and more profitable sales leads, Coats said, Autobytel improved its bottom line last year despite a sharp decline in revenue. Revenue last year plunged to $52.9 million from $71.2 million in 2008. Still, Autobytel cut its net loss in 2009 to $2.4 million from $15.5 million in 2008. The 2008 loss included severance-related costs of $6.9 million and a noncash impairment charge of $57.6 million in 2008. With about $25 million in cash on hand and no debt, Autobytel may make an acquisition this year, Coats Taking from others Favorable patent settlements are contributing to the optimism, Coats said. This month, Autobytel is scheduled to collect the final $2.7 million payment of a $20 million patent infringement settlement with Dealix, a leadgeneration subsidiary of Cobalt Group Inc. Dealix began paying the settle- ment in 2007. Autobytel also is loading new content and tools on its Web sites as a result of patent settlements agreed to last year with Edmunds.com, Insweb Corp., Leadpoint Inc. and Internet Brands Inc. Autobytelâ€™s sites are autosite.com, car.com, carsmart.com, cartv.com and myride.com. As part of the agreement, Edmunds is allowed to use Autobytelâ€™s lead-generating patents in exchange for the right to publish Edmundâ€™s multimedia automotive content on Autobytelâ€™s Web sites, including photos, car reviews and articles. Autobytel also is adding content from Autodata Solutions Inc., a subsidiary of Internet Brands. The Autodata agreement allows Autobytel to publish â€œimages, shopping tools and vehicle data provided by Autodataâ€ for five years. In an agreement that did not involve litigation, Kelley Blue Book last year licensed Autobytel patents and in return gave Autobytel the rights to publish Kelley vehicle value and pricing data on Autobytel sites. In addition, Autobytel is rolling out its iControl software, which enables dealer clients to customize sales leads. Lead generators such as Autobytel sell sales leads to dealers for about $20 â– Ky. dealers elect officers Members of the Kentucky Automobile Dealers Association elected officers. Pictured, from left, are Dan Renshaw of Renshaw Auto Group in Bowling Green, vice chairman; Mike Brown of Brownâ€™s Ford in Paintsville and West Liberty, treasurer; Ron Jackson, the associationâ€™s president; Doug Wolford of Neil Huffman Nissan in Louisville, chairman; and Don Penn Moore III of Don Moore Automotive Group in Owensboro, chairman-elect. â– 35 with Mazda Jeff Robberson, left, of Robberson Mazda in Bend, Ore., receives a 35-year award for Mazda from Arley Pitts, Mazda North American Operationsâ€™ district sales manager. â– 25 with Ford Roger Porter, left, and Steve Porter of Thoroughbred Ford in Kansas City, Mo., received a 25-year award for Ford from Ford Motor Co. â– 40 with Toyota â– 40 with Mercedes Charlton Holmes, right, of Holmes European Motors in Shreveport, La., receives a 40-year award for Mercedes-Benz from Rob Teitelbaum, Mercedes-Benz USAâ€™s area manager for the Southern region. Bob Page, left, of Page Toyota in Southfield, Mich., receives a 40-year award for Toyota from Jim Lentz, COO of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Dealer anniversary awards We invite news items and top-quality photographs for the dealers section. Please include your telephone number or e-mail address. We do not run items for anniversaries of fewer than 25 years. Photos for 25-45 years (one-column photos) should include only two people posed shoulder to shoulder. Photos for 50 or more years (twocolumn photos) should have no more than six people. Please include names (left to right), titles, dealership name and city, franchise(s) held and franchise for which award is given. You may send a photo electronically in jpg format and at high resolution (300 dpi). E-mail items to: autonews@crain.com Or send them to: Dealers Section, Automotive News, 1155 Gratiot Ave. Detroit, MI 48207-2997 Milestones Lisa Hambelton of Mel Hambelton Ford in Wichita, Kan., received a 25-year award for Ford from Ford Motor Co. More design changes, altered cadence in GMâ€™s plans Rick Kranz rkranz@crain.com GENEVA â€” General Motors Co. will redesign its models more often and stagger the introduction of future model derivatives, the companyâ€™s design chief says. Ed Welburn, GMâ€™s vice president of global design, said the automaker has adopted a model introduction strategy that closely mimics that of brands such as BMW. Rather than introduce all model derivatives at the same time, GM will follow what BMW does with the 3 series, staggering the introduction of variants over 24 months. â€œThey do the 3-series sedan, then over a series of years a coupe, convertible or something else,â€ Welburn said during an interview at the Geneva auto show. â€œThere is always something new, something to talk about, something to generate excitement for the vehicle.â€ GMâ€™s Ed Welburn: Staggering the introduction of model derivatives helps â€œgenerate excitement for the vehicle.â€ For example, the forthcoming Cadillac ATS â€” a compact, rearwheel-drive vehicle due in the 2012 model year â€” is expected to arrive as a sedan, coupe and possibly a convertible spread over about 24 months. The current-generation Cadillac CTS sedan was introduced first, and the wagon went on sale last summer. The coupe will go on sale this summer. Welburn also said styling changes to GMâ€™s cars and crossovers will take place more often. GM no longer can â€œjust develop a vehicle, put it out there and just let it stay out there for six, seven years without some freshening. We need to keep it fresh,â€ Welburn said. â€œIf you have a strong vehicle in the market, you have to keep it fresh. â€¦ Some products will require more changes than others. â€œOur customers are impatient,â€ Welburn said. â€œVehicles that are successful need to continue to sell well.â€ c

http://www.Edmunds.com http://www.Edmunds.com http://www.Edmunds.com http://www.autosite.com http://www.car.com http://www.carsmart.com http://www.cartv.com http://www.myride.com

Automotive News - March 15, 2010

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