Autobytel.com Sets Pace With Yahoo! Deal

Leading online automobile dealer Autobytel.com (Nasdaq: ABTL) is increasing its reach in the $370 billion (US$) used car market with a new deal with top portal site Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO). Autobytel will offer thousands of certified pre-owned vehicles for sale through Yahoo! Autos, a service that allows users to research, buy and sell new and used cars.

“This agreement furthers our goal of providing consumers with a central location where they can conveniently research, buy, sell or find information to maintain their vehicle,” said Susan Carls, senior producer of Yahoo! Autos.

Under the terms of the deal, Yahoo! Auto customers will be able to access digital images of the pre-owned vehicles for sale via Autobytel.com. Each car or truck being offered will pass a 135-point certification program and be backed by a three-month/3,000-mile limited warranty, a 72-hour money-back return policy and a travel repair service.

Autobytel.com Focused On Used Cars

Autobytel.com is already selling used vehicles through its Pre-Owned Cyberstore. In addition to earning commissions for sales, Autobytel.com is paid subscription fees from dealers participating in the Cyberstore program. The program is available to Autobytel.com’s network as dealers, as well as other North American dealers who can meet quality requirements.

In April, Autobytel.com recorded more than two million search requests for pre-owned vehicles. Autobytel.com also sells used vehicles through wholesale.autobytel.com, a dealer-to-dealer pre-owned vehicle auction service.

Autobytel.com recently announced that purchase requests to its accredited dealer network are currently resulting in more than $1 million an hour of combined used and new vehicle sales.

According J.D. Power and Associates, Autobytel.com, which also offers sites targeted to Canada, the United Kingdom and Sweden, is the leading e-commerce automobile site, generating nearly as many new-vehicle sales as its two closest competitors combined.

Stock Impact

Autobytel.com was getting a boost in early trading today after the news. Shares of the company were up more than 13 percent, climbing 2-1/2 to 21-1/4. However, Autobytel.com stock is still selling for less than the company’s offering price when it went public on March 26. Autobytel.com went public at $23 and closed up 75 percent on its first day of trading, climbing 17-1/4 to 40-1/4.

Still, Autobytel.com stock has performed about as well as that of its competitor Autoweb.com (Nasdaq: AWEB). Shares of Autoweb.com went public at $14 on March 23 and closed their first day of trading at $40. The stock was at 13-15/16 in early trading today

Meanwhile, shares of Yahoo! climbed 4-3/16 to 147-1/2 early today.