Some outfit from Oregon has bought majority share of Pfaff, Pfaff management team will stay on

https://www.autonews.com/dealers/lit...alership-group

 

For those without a subscription, here's another link.

https://www.autoremarketing.com/arca...aunches-canada

 

Wow. Looks like Pfaff family cashes out.

 

I live near the headquarters of Lithia and the general feeling is not to trust them.

 

Wow- did not see that coming. I have bit of a preference for family ownership, but things change.

 

Really?

Sounds like a perfect time to cash out to me...

 

To me everything is for sale.
these dealers, single or groups, trade brands like monopoly pieces.
Oh, we are not for sale. That just means they were not offered enough.

 

Everything is for sale…for the right price!

 

a little more concerning to me is that even more institutions and companies in Canada being bought up by foreign investment. Selling Canada by the pound ?
Remember those good old Canadian institutions like future shop, Rona and Tim Hortons ?

oh well..

 

This is so true , i would have told you i never would have sold my old 944, i loved that car and was my first Porsche. cars like mine were selling for 6-8K at the time. Some casual acquittance knocked on my door and offered me 15G for it.... gone the same day.

 

Very difficult issue. The problems availability of capital and scaling of capital to grow. I have been on the boards of a fair number of companies.We grew them ti\o a certain point but to participate in global markets at more scale we need to find the right buyer. US companies are flush with cash and in many cases the offers were 2x the trailing stock value. Obviously the shareholders would fire any board who did not maximize their investments.

On the other hand you could protect areas such as telecommunications and media. However, to do so you must restrict foreign entrants into the market. The entire Canadian industry would be a single region for a major us telco, and prices would drop drastically, but it would be US ownership. Not the easiest question.

I have been involved also in some start-ups The majority of them seek US ownership at a certain point.

 

If you were a Pfaff director/owner you would take the money too.

We like to thing the high road/morality game is “Canadian” but money talks, and clearly they were offered freight trains of it.

good on Pfaff.
as to what happens next.... hold my beer?

 

In my view the world of dealerships is going to change drastically as EVs take hold and get more reliable. We already have the emergence of hyperconnected cars, an increasingly mature web market for used cars and even auctions. We can all spec our cars on the web. Ford for instance has said the will move to build more to order and reduce dealer inventories. So, why a dealer? With less service on EVs you have to think about how likely you might be to buy a car completely remotely. Covid is causing a drastic rethink. I have not bought a car in a showroom for many years.

 

not true at all !!!!! .. according to Ronnie ....

 

Well, we have slightly different views about economics,politics and the future