AutoTrader.com revealed to Auto Remarketing Friday afternoon that it is acquiring vAuto. vAuto founder Dale Pollak believes this is the right move for his company.

Though AutoTrader.com did not share any terms of the acquisition, it did note that vAuto will be a subsidiary and will retain its management team, current headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., and its Austin, Texas research and development center.

Specifically, officials emphasized that founder Dale Pollak and president Keith Jezek are staying with vAuto.

Discussing the transaction on his blog, Pollak explained, “Over the past several years, it has become apparent that the used-car business is increasingly more and more about the Internet. Further, the growing community of Velocity-minded dealers has come to the realization that their business strategy depends on virtual marketing proficiency.

“Realizing that neither inventory nor virtual marketing proficiency alone is enough for success, the connection between our company and third-party Web providers became obvious,” Pollak shared. “In other words, it has become clear to me that inventory management and virtual marketing must be real-time and highly integrated. To this end, I began to consider the need to form a closer working relationship with online third-party merchandise companies.”

That’s where AutoTrader.com came in. Pollak attended AutoTrader.com’s annual sales meeting two years ago and listened as president and chief executive officer Chip Perry told the field staff their roles were changing from being “sales representatives” to instead being “advertising consultants.”

In essence, the sales goals of a dealer were more important than the company’s own sales interests, Pollak recalled Perry saying.

“It was further announced that ongoing formal training would be provided to facilitate their field staff’s transition from sales to consultants. Over the past two years, I’ve had the privilege of assisting in this training process, along with other highly respected institutions, including NADA Academy and Northwood University,” Pollak pointed out.

“As I became more acquainted with the men and women at all levels of AutoTrader, I came to understand their commitment and desire to engage in this change and to serve the interests of their dealers as their first priority,” he added.

He went on to say, “In addition, AutoTrader was willing to assist vAuto and our clients by providing access to its deep database information about vehicle supply, demand, consumer preference and behavior. I felt as though I had discovered and been given access to a treasure trove of information to assist dealers.

“The benefits of our mutual cooperation lead dealers to frequently ask why our two companies don’t combine to provide even more real-time and deeper integration. In essence, the decision to unite with AutoTrader was a natural and easy one.”

With regards to the questions that may arise concerning the acquisition, Pollak later emphasized: “First, I want you to know that our entire management team will remain intact. Further, there are no plans to modify our organization with respect to its structure or personnel. vAuto’s and AutoTrader.com’s sales and consulting teams will remain in their current configurations and continue to operate separately.

“To be clear, the acquisition by AutoTrader.com is an express endorsement of who we are and how we conduct business. The intention is for us to continue forward with our same passion and commitment,” Pollak added.

Continuing on, vAuto and AutoTrader.com will act independently, for the most part. However, the two companies plan to team up for product development and customer training.

Continuing on, officials stressed that there will be upgrades in the offerings that both AutoTrader.com and vAuto provide to dealer customers. Some of these enhancements could include things like “more real-time, market-demand driven tools.”

The companies also emphasized that AutoTrader.com will retain the relationships it already has with other dealer inventory management, pricing and optimization tool providers.

“Over the past decade, the Internet has enabled consumers to have a tremendously more transparent view of used vehicle availability and pricing on a local, regional and national basis,” stated Perry. “This huge consumer benefit has driven more than 75 percent of car buyers to shop online before making their vehicle purchase.”

He added: “This change in the way consumers shop for cars has created a strong need for dealers to efficiently manage and merchandise their vehicles in a way that ensures they remain competitive. As a result of these trends, the many dealers who use third party classifieds sites like AutoTrader.com and who also employ state-of-the-art inventory management and pricing tools like vAuto are generating strong growth and profitability even in the face of a soft automotive market.”

Perry continued: “AutoTrader.com is acquiring vAuto to further help dealers enhance their performance on the Internet by combining the power of AutoTrader.com’s 15 million unique visitor audience and 1,000-plus person consultative sales and service team with vAuto’s industry leading software tools for used vehicle pricing and inventory optimization.”

Pollak, meanwhile, chimed in saying, “I am excited to see vAuto join forces with AutoTrader.com because our two companies share a common passion for helping dealers leverage the Internet through strong product innovation and customer service.

“Together we are intent on ensuring that customers of both vAuto and AutoTrader.com will continue to benefit from the expertise and consulting services that they’ve come to depend on and trust,” he continued. “Another key benefit we expect to provide to both companies’ dealers is improved data products and services offered by both AutoTrader.com and vAuto.”

Pollak added: “I believe by working together AutoTrader.com and vAuto will accelerate the automotive retail industry’s adoption of efficiency and profit enhancing tools for used vehicle marketing, management and merchandising. This combination will enhance dealers’ performance through improved dealership profitability and operational efficiency, more real-time market pricing and merchandising, and stronger market transparency and responsiveness.”

Finally, the companies noted that vAuto’s lone financial adviser for this move was Portico Capital Securities LLC, while vAuto’s outside counsel was David Washburn of Andrews Kurth LLC.