AutoWeb to be acquired by conglomerate One Planet Group

Dealership advertising and marketing firm AutoWeb Inc., after this spring revealing doubts about its skill to go on as a going problem, stated Monday it has agreed to be acquired by One particular Planet Group, a self-described hybrid engineering organization led by a person of AutoWeb’s founders.

One Planet Team will pay out AutoWeb shareholders 39 cents for each share, according to a regulatory submitting containing the transaction agreement. The filing will not reveal the in general purchase rate for AutoWeb but says the corporation has just much more than 14 million outstanding shares. That would translate to a acquire price tag of just about $5.5 million.

AutoWeb CEO Jared Rowe, 48, will leave the organization soon after the transaction closes and will be paid out $1.75 million in installments, with the payout to be completed by March 15. Just one World Group CEO Payam Zamani, 51, will replace him, according to a information launch. AutoWeb, of Tampa, Fla., explained it predicted the deal to shut by Sept. 16.

“Not lots of founders get the possibility to return to a firm that they helped develop,” Zamani explained in a statement. “AutoWeb has been a pioneer in the on the internet automotive marketplace and in several methods straight affected its evolution. It is now time for the corporation to knowledge an evolution to get ready for the worries and the opportunities in the automotive field of tomorrow.”

Zamani formerly instructed Automotive Information that he and his brother Frank co-established AutoWeb, an on-line motor vehicle-buying company, in 1994. Zamani, in an e-mail to Automotive Information, declined further more comment about the offer.

AutoWeb’s heritage is intertwined with that of Autobytel Inc., an additional 1990s on the web car-getting venture.

Pete Ellis started Autobytel, which had its first public presenting in March 1999. In 2015, Autobytel obtained AutoWeb for its analytics abilities. In 2017, Autobytel transformed its corporate title to AutoWeb and its stock ticker from “ABTL” to “Car.”

In Might, AutoWeb announced its board of directors would explore strategic possibilities for the firm — like a likely sale or restructuring — because “significant question” existed about its potential to proceed as a heading worry.

At the time, AutoWeb claimed its money and liquidity problem led management to make that dedication following the business posted a internet reduction of $4.3 million for the initial quarter. A special board committee was designed to consider alternatives for the corporation, which include getting new debt or equity funding providing the business or property and restructuring, including via federal individual bankruptcy defense.

The board committee recommended the acquisition by One Earth Group, and AutoWeb’s board of directors authorised the transaction, in accordance to the news launch.

The acquisition will just take the variety of a two-action merger. A person World Group will to start with situation a tender offer you for issued and outstanding AutoWeb shares. That will be offered by Aug. 1, according to the launch.

The enterprise will then go forward with the next phase, in which AutoWeb shares not tendered in the tender present “would be converted into the ideal to receive the very same dollars selling price for every share as stockholders who tendered in the tendered offer.”

AutoWeb shares dropped 14 % to 38 cents at the 4 p.m. close of investing Monday.