Chicago-based online car-buying company Cars.com laid off 126 employees last month, the company confirmed to Chicago Inno.
The cuts, which were about 8 percent of the company’s workforce, affected mostly sales employees outside of Chicago, said Cars.com CEO Alex Vetter in an emailed statement. Only three employees in its Chicago offices at Riverside Plaza were affected, he said.
The company now has about 1,500 employees total, including 990 in Illinois, between Chicago and Naperville.
“Ultimately, this is about business strategy evolution and segmentation,” Vetter said. “We’re moving from generic support to highly-specialized services that will drive performance for our clients and help them go deeper with our data and technical solutions. And we’re investing more in product development, marketing and traffic generation—which is what our customers want.”
The layoffs follow Cars.com’s acquisition of two Naperville tech companies, Dealer Inspire and Launch Digital Marketing, in deals worth $165 million. The acquisitions have allowed Cars.com to provide more digital tools to their clients. Both Dealer Inspire and LDM were run by Joe Chura and shared an office space in Naperville.
Going forward, Vetter said Cars.com plans to add 35 employees in account management and sales positions in Chicago and 175 in Naperville at its Dealer Inspire unit.
“Having acquired new companies, technologies and solutions in the past year that strengthen our offerings, we are now able to create efficiencies in our business that also allow us to better serve our customers with more holistic, integrated digital solutions,” Vetter said.
