We continue to think about all of you, our customers and partners, during this difficult time. This pandemic has caused deep challenges across our industry and for all of us, and I hope you know that DealerSocket continues to be here for our dealers. Our goal has been to strike the right balance between being prepared for our dealers and the market when our industry recovers and offering discounts to help our dealers as much as possible during this difficult time. 

We will get through this, and we will get through this together. We are committed to fighting through this with you. We are beginning to see the first signs of positive trends as we climb out of the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this has us all hopeful for the future.

In April, we heavily discounted our software for our dealers. In addition to our discounts in April, we have decided to offer the following DealerSocket billing reductions for May for all of our dealers:

We have already sent out our May invoices, so next week you will receive a credit memo for the above discounts. With that said, similar to our discount package last month, there are some basic qualifying terms listed below.

In addition to these discounts in April and May, DealerSocket continues to offer our customers several promotions and free months of certain software products to help you navigate this crisis. Our offers include promotions for:

Since we are adding promotions and various resources for dealers often, please view DealerSocket’s latest information by clicking here, and, as always, please feel free to reach out to your Customer Success Manager with any questions or if we can help in any way:

If you are not yet an Auto/Mate DMS customer, I hope you know that we can reduce your DMS bill significantly during these challenging times as well as into the future by switching to Auto/Mate DMS. We have several bundled packages that include our Auto/Mate DMS product combined with other DealerSocket products to support you.

Thank you for partnering with DealerSocket. I hope you know how much we value and appreciate your loyalty, partnership, and your business.

I wish you, your families, and your team members health in these unprecedented times.

Sejal Pietrzak
CEO and President
DealerSocket
[email protected]

 

Details regarding our COVID-19 relief package:

Dear Customers and Partners,

Our thoughts are with you during these difficult times. As you may know, DealerSocket has built our reputation on a legacy of listening and partnering with our dealers. We recognize that all of us are in this fight together, and we are focused on helping you navigate through this crisis both economically and operationally. After countless discussions with our customers and hearing from you over the past week, we are announcing a significant reduction to your DealerSocket bill for April.

DealerSocket billing reductions:

Your April bill will be automatically credited in the amounts represented above, so no action is required from you. Your credit statement will be separate from your April bill, as many April bills have already gone out. With that said, there are some basic qualifying terms listed below.

As I’m sure you are also experiencing, things seem to change hour by hour. We will continue to assess the situation and talk with our customers, as we plan for things beyond April. We are trying to strike the right balance between being prepared for you when the market recovers and ensuring we can all weather this storm together.

In addition, we are offering our customers several promotions to help you navigate this crisis. Our offers include promotions for:

Since we are adding promotions and various resources for dealers often, please view DealerSocket’s latest information for our dealers at the link below, and as always, please feel free to reach out to your Customer Success Manager with any questions or if we can help in any way:

https://dealersocket.com/coronavirus-support/

We will get through this, and we will get through this together. We are committed to fighting through this with you. THANK YOU for partnering with DealerSocket. I hope you know how much we value and appreciate your loyalty, partnership, and your business.

Details regarding our COVID-19 relief package:

I wish you, your families, and your team members health in these unprecedented times.

Sejal Pietrzak
President & CEO
DealerSocket

I hope you, your family, and your dealership teams are healthy during this unprecedented time.

I wanted to send an update regarding the steps we have taken to help reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 among our team members, our dealership customers, and our communities.

We have asked our team members not to travel during this period. Please know that our team members are fully available to you and will proactively communicate by phone, video call, chat, email, and text as you need us. Our team will continue to deliver DealerSocket’s trusted, mission-critical software and services for you.

In addition, our team members have been working from home this week. We have a robust and tested business continuity plan in place, and as such, we continue to operate at full capacity for our software, our business, and our support.

We are here for you. We will get through this, and we will get through it together.

Thank you for your loyalty and your business. We value and appreciate you. Please know that you can always rely on DealerSocket for our software, support, and our dealer-first focus. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]

Please stay healthy and safe.

 

Sejal Pietrzak
President & CEO
DealerSocket

Sejal Pietrzak, President & CEO, DealerSocket

Since DealerSocket was founded nearly 19 years ago by co-founders Jonathan Ord and Brad Perry in Brad’s garage in California, their vision was to offer auto dealers innovative software with a deep focus on customer service. They began by creating the industry’s first-ever hosted CRM solution for dealerships.  After partnering with Vista Equity Partners, they acquired four companies to expand their offering, and by the end of 2015, DealerSocket was nearly able to offer the market a full platform solution, but was still missing a key piece, a franchise DMS solution.

Our founders’ vision from several years ago of an all-in-one platform is today almost a reality. Earlier this month, I shared with you that DealerSocket signed an agreement to acquire Auto/Mate, a DMS that serves more than 1,500 franchise dealerships. Auto/Mate has in recent years become a leading franchise DMS provider, winning more than 82% of their customers from the industry’s two largest DMS competitors, and enjoying more than 98% retention year after year.

Since early 2018, when I first spent time with Auto/Mate’s leaders, I realized that our companies share similar core values, and we both have a dedicated team who care deeply about our dealership customers, many of whom come from families of dealers and have spent years of their career working in dealerships. I truly believe the combination of our two great companies offers dealers a much-needed alternative, a new choice for a full platform solution in our industry, dedicated to serving car people by car people.

Challenges you may have heard about or seen in the media about this transaction are disagreements regarding the valuation and economic terms of this transaction among our founders and other board members. There is no disagreement across our board about the strategic benefits the transaction will have for DealerSocket, Auto/Mate, and our dealers.

We have been working on the acquisition of Auto/Mate for quite some time. Throughout this period, we held very comprehensive and deliberate discussions with our board, including several board meetings and volumes of emails and calls discussing and iterating on financials and the decision to execute on this transaction. The entire process has been handled with integrity, openness, and thoroughness. We discussed and agreed on the strategic value of our combined companies, and we reviewed detailed financials, which were shared amongst all of our board members in connection with this deal. Ultimately, our board agrees on the strategic value of combining DealerSocket with Auto/Mate, and all of our board members, including myself, unanimously voted to approve the deal, except our two founders, due to economic terms related to it.

I am disappointed that these legal filings are causing a delay in completing this acquisition and ultimately delaying our ability to offer our dealers the strategic benefits of a combined offering. I look forward to completing the next steps and welcoming the Auto/Mate family to DealerSocket soon. I believe we will look back many years from now and realize that the combination of DealerSocket and Auto/Mate was one of the most impactful, game-changing decisions for our dealers and the automotive software industry.

I look forward to sharing great news of a completed acquisition with you soon.

Sejal PietrzakPresident & CEO
DealerSocket

Sejal Pietrzak, President & CEO, DealerSocket

I am excited to share a great announcement with you as we kick off the new year! DealerSocket has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Auto/Mate, one of the leading DMS providers for automotive dealerships.

By bringing together Auto/Mate’s comprehensive DMS technology with DealerSocket’s software suite, once the acquisition closes, we will offer our dealers a unique and intelligent platform where innovative software is combined with best-in-class service.

As you may know, DealerSocket has an independent-focused DMS product, but we do not currently have a DMS product for franchise dealers. Upon the close of the deal, with the acquisition of Auto/Mate’s DMS, we will be able to offer franchise dealers a complete and comprehensive one-stop-shop solution with great technology and best-in-class service that is much-needed in the market.

We believe the combination of our two companies will be a game changer for our customers, our industry, and our two companies. Upon close, the combined company will support more than 9,000 dealerships and well over 300,000 active users.

We decided to acquire Auto/Mate to offer dealers a new alternative and a better choice for a fully integrated platform solution. After we close, we will invest significantly in a deeper integration between our products. We will continue to innovate to create intelligent applications that make your job easier and help drive increased profitability for you. For our customers who utilize another DMS provider, please know that we will continue to offer you seamless and real-time integrations between DealerSocket products and all DMS technology providers, just as we do today.

DealerSocket and Auto/Mate will continue to operate separately until an official close has been announced. For both of our companies, it will be ‘business as usual’ as we complete the steps to close, and you should continue to reach out to your normal point of contact at DealerSocket as needed. We look forward to sharing additional updates after the deal closes.

I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends, and I wish you all the best in this new year. Thank you for your business. We value you and appreciate your continued loyalty and trust in DealerSocket.

As always, please feel free to send me an email ([email protected]) if you have any questions. To read the official press release, please click here.

Sejal PietrzakPresident & CEO
DealerSocket