Description
Edmunds.com Inc. is an American online resource for automotive information. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains an office in downtown Detroit, Michigan. After making a minority investment, Carmax purchased the whole company at an enterprise value of $404 million in 2021.
History
Edmunds was founded by Ludwig Arons in 1966 as Edmunds Publications, a publisher of printed booklets consolidating automotive specifications to help car shoppers make buying decisions. In 1988, the company was purchased by Peter Steinlauf whose family has owned a majority stake since.
By the 1990s, Edmunds published its data to CD-ROM while also publishing books such as Edmunds New Cars & Trucks Buyer's Guide, Edmunds Used Cars & Trucks Buyer's Guide and Edmunds Strategies for Smart Car Buyers. In 1994, the company posted on a gopher site known as the Electronic Newsstand. The company launched the Edmunds.com website in 1995. By 1996, the company had formed web commerce agreements with Autobytel, a site linking buyers to nearby dealers, and the auto insurance company, Geico. As part of the agreement, each time a lead was generated from the Edmunds.com website, it would get paid a fee. In June 1999, the company changed its name to Edmunds.com, Inc.
The company introduced True Market Value, a service that analyzed a variety of factors to offer a suggested transaction price for vehicles in 2000. That same year, the company introduced simple websites for web-ready mobile phones and PDAs. In 2005, Edmunds.com launched Inside Line, a free online magazine for automotive enthusiasts. Inside Line delivered automotive content in the form of videos, photos, blogs, news articles, discussion boards and road tests, before being discontinued in 2013. In 2010, the company launched its first mobile phone apps, 10 years after introducing its mobile website.
In 2011, two years after launching a similar service for new vehicles, the company launched a used car inventory search tool, allowing users to compare vehicles in their market. Edmunds.com launched its first ever TV advertising campaign in select markets in 2012, before expanding nationally in 2013. That same year, the company announced the Edmunds Price Promise, a feature that allowed users to see the accurate price of a vehicle online and guaranteed by a local dealer. In 2014, Edmunds.com acquired CarCode, a mobile messaging startup that won one of the company's Hackomotive challenges and participated in the company's accelerator program.
In 2016, the company relocated its headquarters to the Colorado Center in Santa Monica. In 2017, as part of a rebranding effort, the company officially dropped the .com from its name, unveiled a new logo, and redesigned its website to aid mobile users.
