Adevinta purchased CarsGuide, Autotrader and Gumtree Cars from eBay as recently as August this year. 

The search for a new buyer means, depending on how long the next sale takes to complete, that the combined offering of CarsGuide, Autotrader and Gumtree Cars, which were initially owned by car dealers to take on the might and power of Carsales, will have had five owners in the past decade and three owners in less than two years.

Owners by date:

2011: CarsGuide was launched in 2011 by a consortium of dealers (One Way Traffic) and News Corp. 

2016: News Corp sold out and CarsGuide was merged into Cox Automotive Australia which became 30 per cent owned by the dealers (DealerMotive).   

2018: Cox Automotive launches Autotrader 

2020: Cox Automotive sold CarsGuide and Autotrader to eBay Classifieds

2021: eBay sold CarsGuide, Autotrader and Gumtree Cars to Adevinta

2021: Adevinta places CarsGuide, Autotrader and Gumtree Cars back on the market

The news to divest the business was included in Adevinta’s latest business announcement.

Explaining the move, Adevinta said that it had decided to concentrate on five core markets in Europe and as a result would be selling off the Australian business. It also plans to sell its South African brands, with both sales scheduled to take place in 2022.

Rolv Erik Ryssdal, CEO Adevinta, said: “Following the completion of the eBay Classifieds Group acquisition, we have refreshed our strategy and reviewed our portfolio of brands to focus and propel Adevinta for the long term. 

“Going forward, we will concentrate our investment capacity on five core markets: Germany, France, Spain, Benelux and Italy, where we remain very excited about the significant growth opportunities and our unique positions to capture those.

“In line with Adevinta’s active portfolio management strategy, we have decided to divest Australia and South Africa commencing in early 2022.”

In August, CarsGuide, Autotrader, Gumtree Cars and nine other classified businesses finalised their sale by eBay Classified Group to the global Norwegian-based second-hand marketplace ad company Adevinta.

Adevinta had digital platforms in 16 countries and after the purchases from eBay Classified Group, that cover increased to 20 countries and it became the largest online classified business in the world.

Under the deal, eBay Classified Group became the biggest shareholder of Adevinta, with 44 per cent of the shares and about 33 per cent of the voting rights.

In return, eBay Classified Group received 540 million Adevinta shares plus $US2.5 billion in cash. The deal valued the combined classified business at $9.2 billion.

Adevinta has 12 classified brands operating in 13 countries (plus businesses in a further three countries).

It also has online vehicle marketplace businesses in Denmark, Germany, Italy and the UK, with general classifieds in countries including Belgium, Singapore, South Africa, Ireland, Poland, Canada, the Netherlands and Mexico.

In a statement in August, eBay Classified Group and Adevinta said the deal would realise between $US150 million and $US185 million in annual synergies within three years.

The Adevinta deal made the Oslo business the third owner of CarsGuide, Autotrader, Gumtree Cars in 13 months.

CarsGuide (by then including Autotrader) was bought from Cox Automotive Australia in June 2020 by eBay Classifieds Group. Cox Automotive sold out of automotive media in line with its strategy to concentrate on dealer solutions in the US, UK and Australia. eBay Classified Group already owned Gumtree Australia.

Adevinta is majority owned by Schibsted ASA. Related to the transaction, Schibsted has entered into an agreement with Adevinta to acquire eBay’s classifieds entity in Denmark, including leading Danish marketplaces DBA.dk and Bilbasen.dk.

By John Mellor