Cars.com is being spun off from its parent company Tegna and will become a publicly traded company.
Tegna announced Wednesday that Chicago-based Cars.com will go public next year, and it will trade under the ticker symbol CARS. Cars.com will remain headquartered in Chicago, and Tegna said the digital automotive marketplace "will be able to focus more sharply on its key strategic priorities" as a public company.
Tegna added that is evaluating a sale of Chicago-based CareerBuilder, one of its other properties.
“Spinning off Cars.com from TEGNA will establish two strong, industry-leading companies that are well positioned to compete and to continue to profitably grow in their targeted markets," Gracia Martore, TEGNA president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "Each business will have increased strategic, operating, and financial flexibility at a time when the broadcast and digital sectors are both rapidly evolving – presenting both companies with a wealth of opportunities."
"Cars.com will have the flexibility to invest in further organic growth and to participate in the active digital automotive M&A market," she added. Martore will retire upon the closing of the spin-off, the company said.
Alex Vetter, a longtime Cars.com veteran who was promoted to CEO in 2014, will service as CEO and president of publicly traded Cars.com.
Tegna, which owns a 53% controlling interest in CareerBuilder, announced that it will evaluate strategic alternatives for the job listing and HR software company, including a possible sale.
Cars.com was founded in 1998 and became one of Chicago's early digital success stories. First owned by Classified Ventures, a joint venture between five newspaper publishers to re-capture lost revenue from online classified ads, Cars.com was bought by Gannett in 2014 for $1.8 billion. Tegna spun off Gannett in 2015.
Cars.com has around 1,300 employees. The spin-off is expected to take place in the first half of 2017.
Image via Cars.com
