MEDFORD, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE: LAD) announced we have entered into a strategic partnership with Shift, a San Francisco-based ecommerce retailer using technology to simplify the car purchasing and ownership experience. In addition, Lithia will lead Shift’s Series D fundraising round, investing $54 million, and become the largest shareholder. Since inception, Shift has raised over $265 million in debt and equity.
Shift’s innovative platform provides consumers a digital purchase and selling experience, utilizing a concierge to pick up and deliver vehicles whenever and wherever they choose. Shift currently operates throughout California, is the largest used car retailer in San Francisco and will sell approximately 8,000 vehicles in 2018. For more information, visit www.shift.com.
This partnership allows both companies to share and scale technology, data, inventory, business relationships and physical network to capture more of the over 40 million used vehicles sold in the United States annually. Combining the second largest, owned online inventory and data on over 12 million vehicle transactions with a world-class engineering and design team furthers our seamless omni-channel retail experience. Mutually identified areas of collaboration accelerate Shift’s growth while meaningfully increasing our ownership as success is realized. In the future, there are multiple options for monetization depending on Shift’s growth trajectory and capital needs.
“We’re impressed with Shift’s technology platform and dynamic operational capabilities,” said Bryan DeBoer, President and CEO. “Like us, they are creating a digital marketplace and providing a retail experience wherever, whenever and however consumers desire. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with a company that is a great cultural fit.”
“Since our first meeting with the Lithia team, we were happy to discover we shared many of the same company values, including the desire to make car buying and selling more affordable, accessible, and transparent,” said Shift Co-CEO Toby Russell. “This collaboration gives us the resources we need to double-down on our technology investments and scale more quickly and efficiently. As our company enters this new growth stage, we cannot think of a better partner to have by our side.”
Conference Call and Presentation
Lithia’s management will host a conference call on Thursday, September 13, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. EDT to discuss the strategic partnership. The call may be accessed by telephone at (877) 407-8029. To listen live on our website or for replay, visit www.lithiainvestorrelations.com and click on webcasts.
A presentation summarizing the partnership has been added to www.lithiainvestorrelations.com.
About Lithia
Lithia Motors, Inc. is one of the largest providers of personal transportation solutions in the United States and is among the fastest growing companies in the Fortune 500 (#294-2018). Consumers can buy, sell and service vehicles digitally or through our 183 nationwide locations. Our mission statement, Growth Powered by People, drives us to continuously improve and to give back to our communities.
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