eBay Classifieds Group (eCG), through Gumtree, has completed its acquisition of Cox Australia Media Solutions, which includes CarsGuide.com.au and Autotrader.com.au.
Moving forward, eCG aims to build upon each of the brand’s respective strengths, but the individual brands will all maintain their unique offerings.
“Our key focus is to support the CarsGuide Autotrader team to develop one, consolidated proposition for car dealers and commercial partners and deliver incremental value,” said Mark Kehoe, the newly appointed Managing Director of Gumtree Australia.
“Consumers will have a choice between three shop windows to browse, buy and sell. This is just one step in the direction of Gumtree’s vision of, together, becoming the leading automotive marketplace in Australia, in line with eBay’s global vision for automotive classifieds,” Kehoe said.
Mark Kehoe, Managing Director, Gumtree Australia and Shaun Cornelius, CEO, Cox Australia Media Solutions
Currently, Gumtree is the number one destination for privately listed vehicles, CarsGuide.com.au is the top automotive editorial site, and Autotrader.com.au is the second site for dealer network customers.
The combined CarsGuide and AutoTrader network has over 2,500 dealers. “CarsGuide Autotrader brings together quality automotive editorial content and an engaged audience of auto intenders through our leading editorial site CarsGuide, a strong dealer customer base through Autotrader and carsspecific tools and resources to support Australian car buyers and sellers,” said Shaun Cornelius, CEO of CarsGuide Autotrader.
The finalisation of this acquisition closely follows the recent appointment of Mark Kehoe as the Managing Director of Gumtree Australia. Previously, Kehoe was the Non-Executive Director of the 20 Beaches Foundation, and before that was the Director of advisory firm Sastrugi.
