Old is New Again – Dejavu – (You won’t believe how) KAR is Going Retro
KAR Global announces rebrand under the name Openlane
On May 15, KAR Global will go retro and rebrand as Openlane
Retro because Openlane was the name of KAR CEO Peter Kelly’s previous company which he co-founded with Andrew Iorgulescue and ultimately sold to KAR’s Adesa division in 2011.
Openlane, (previously Auto Trade Center – “ATC-Open”) merged with Onlane, a Canadian online auction company founded by Clive Kinross and Michael Stein. The resulting company – Openlane – subsequently grew to disrupt the industry and capture the attention of Adesa. The rest as they say is history….
Until May 15th that is – when a new lighter weight KAR sheds its old name and revitalizes the Openlane brand to celebrate its divestiture of the cumbersome infrastructure of Adesa, (to the misfortune of Carvana), and to champion its investment and continuing focus on the agile model formerly, and once again known as – Openlane.
Peter Kelly CEO commented “Over the past decade, we’ve built and acquired some of the leading digital platforms in our industry, Combining the best features and functionality from this technology and unifying our supporting operations will help us create the fastest, easiest and most active digital marketplace available.”
- The rebranded company will keep trading under the ticker symbol “KAR” on the New York Stock Exchange, according to a news release.
The Openlane story is one of the great David vs Goliath stories of our industry. A disruptive force envisioned in parallel by Peter and Andrew at ATC-Open, and Clive and Michael at Onlane, which coalesced in Openlane and has now grown to take the wheel of KAR, and turn the industry icon in a more progressive and sustainable direction.
With similar objectives for positive disruption to the industry, BDC United congratulates Openlane on its achievements and welcomes the brand back to the lead of the Auto Remarketing Pack.
https://www.autonews.com/used-cars/kar-global-says-it-will-rebrand-openlane