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EX-99.1 - PRESS RELEASE DATED MAY 10, 2018 - AutoWeb, Inc. | ex99-1.htm |
8-K - FORM 8K - AutoWeb, Inc. | auto8k_may102018.htm |
Exhibit 99.2
AUTOWEB, INC
Moderator:
Sean Mansouri
May 10, 2018
5:00 p.m. ET
Operator:
This is Conference
# 5996108
Operator:
Good afternoon,
everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference
call to discuss AutoWeb's financial results for the first quarter
ended March 31st, 2018.
Joining
us today are AutoWeb's CEO, Jared Rowe, the company's interim CFO,
Wes Ozima, and the company's outside Investor Relations Adviser,
Sean Mansouri, with Liolios Group. Following their remarks, we'll
open the call for your questions.
I would
now like to turn the call over to Mr. Mansouri for some
introductory comments. You may begin.
Sean
Mansouri:
Thank
you.
Before
I introduce Jared, I remind you that during today's call, including
the question and answer session, statements that are not historical
facts, including any projections, statements regarding future
events or future financial performance, or statements of intent or
belief are forward-looking statements and are covered by the safe
harbor disclaimers contained in today's press release and the
company's public filings with the SEC.
Actual
outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed
in or implied by these forward-looking statements. Specifically,
please refer to the company's Form 10-Q for the first quarter ended
March 31st, 2018, which was filed prior to this call, as well as
other filings made by AutoWeb with the SEC from time to time. These
filings identify factors that could cause results to differ
materially from those forward-looking statements.
Please
also note that during the today's call, management will be
disclosing non-GAAP loss or non-GAAP income and non-GAAP EPS. These
are non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G.
Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most
directly comparable GAAP measures are included in today's press
release, which is posted on the company's Web Site.
And
with that, I'll turn the call over to Jared.
-1-
Jared R.
Rowe:
Thanks, Sean. And
good afternoon, everybody. It's an honor and privilege to rejoin
the AutoWeb team since kicking off my digital marketing career at
the company nearly 20 years ago. Over the years, AutoWeb has
established itself as a premier provider of measured media
advertising solutions for all major OEMs and dealers across the
country.
But the
more specifically, AutoWeb is specialized in providing clients with
high-quality, performance-managed campaigns that include detailed
attribution. Now this enables our clients to understand the value
of our ROI -- and ROI of our services, which we think is absolutely
critical.
Now,
over the past 18 months, AutoWeb has not performed up to its full
potential, and the company's results have been disappointing to
everybody. However, our OEM and dealer clients continue to rely
upon us for cost-efficient marketing solutions, which I believe
speaks to the power of our platform and the need for the types of
products and services that we provide.
Now,
since joining the company a little less than a month ago, I've
spent my time focused on better understanding our organizational
capabilities and how we are performing in terms of client value
delivery.
While
still early in my time here, and I still have much to review, I am
excited to report that we've already identified several ways for us
to improve our operational efficiency and our product
effectiveness. And we have a solid foundation from which to build,
with advanced technology, a talented team and clients that rely
upon our products.
I could
tell you that we are committed to making the changes necessary to
get AutoWeb back to growth and profitability. But before commenting
further on our plans, I'd like to turn the call over to Wes to walk
us through the details of our Q1 results. Wes?
Wesley
Ozima:
Thank you, Jared,
and good afternoon, everyone.
First
quarter revenue came in at $32.3 million, down from $37.3 million
in the year-ago quarter. The decline in revenue was primarily due
to less efficient traffic acquisition and lower retail dealer count
and lead volumes. However, our advertising revenues increased to
$8.1 million compared to $8 million in the year-ago quarter,
primarily driven by increased click revenues, which were up 3
percent to $6.7 million compared to $6.5 million in the same period
last year. The increase in click revenues was driven by higher
click volumes into our wholesale channel.
-2-
Now
moving to gross profit. During the first quarter gross profit was
$7.7 million, compared to $12.9 million in the year-ago quarter,
with gross margin coming in at 23.8 percent compared to 34.6
percent for the year-ago quarter. The decline was primarily driven
by the aforementioned less efficient traffic
acquisition.
Total
operating expenses in the first quarter were $18 million compared
to $11.7 million last year. The increase was primarily driven by a
goodwill impairment charge of $5.1 million associated with a
decrease in our market value compared to book value, as well as
severance-related costs associated with our previously announced
headcount realignment in February 2018, and the exit of our
previous CEO.
Regarding the
headcount realignment, in February, the company took action to
better align our cost structure and mitigate the challenges to
profitability.
On a
GAAP basis, net loss in the first quarter was $10.3 million, or
negative $0.81 per share, on 12.6 million shares, compared to a net
income of $0.5 million, or $0.04 per share, on 13.3 million shares
in the year-ago quarter. The decrease was primarily driven by the
aforementioned goodwill impairment charge as well as severance
costs and lower revenues.
For the
first quarter, non-GAAP loss/income, which adds back amortization
of acquired intangibles, noncash base stock -- I'm sorry, noncash
stock-based compensation, severance costs, litigation settlements,
goodwill impairment and income taxes, was negative $0.9 million, or
negative $0.07 per share, compared to $3.5 million, or $0.26 per
share, in the first quarter of 2017. The decline was primarily
driven by the aforementioned lower revenue and gross
margins.
Cash
used in operations in the first quarter was $1.7 million, compared
to cash provided by operations of $3.5 million in the prior year
quarter. At March 31, 2018, cash and cash equivalents stood at
$15.2 million, compared to $25 million at December 31, 2017, with
the decrease driven by a repayment of an $8 million revolving line
of credit. As a result, total debt at March 31, 2018, was reduced
to $1 million, compared to $9 million at the end of
2017.
Moving
on to some other operating metrics. We delivered approximately $1.8
million automotive leads during the first quarter, compared to $2.2
million in the year-ago period, a reduction resulting primarily
from less efficient traffic acquisition. Note that this lead volume
reflects all leads sold to both the retail and wholesale channels
for new and used vehicles.
-3-
As a
reminder, the retail channel comprises leads sold directly to
dealers, whereas as the wholesale channel primarily reflects leads
sold to OEMs that are then distributed to dealers and their
corporate leads program at the OEMs' discretion.
Dealer
count stood at 23,886 on March 31st, down from 24,242 at the end of
Q4. The 1 percent decrease was primarily driven by the
aforementioned decline in retail dealers.
Similar
to our leads breakout, this dealer count reflects all the dealers
we sold new vehicle leads to, including both the wholesale and
retail channels. Buy rates for the quarter remain strong with
Autobytel.com, generating an average estimated buy rate of 30
percent and all AutoWeb internally generated leads estimated at
about 18 percent. This compares to an estimated 25 percent for
Autobytel.com and an estimated 18 percent for all AutoWeb
internally generated leads in the first quarter of
2017.
With
that, I'll now turn the call back to Jared.
Jared R.
Rowe:
Thanks, Wes. Now,
as I mentioned earlier, I've been meeting with key constituents
over the last month to better understand our current opportunities
and constraints. We remain in the early stages of developing and
deploying various initiatives to acquire traffic more efficiently,
improve our overall quality, and ultimately, make the AutoWeb
platform more effective for our clients.
Now
over the several months, we will be finalizing the new strategic
growth plan, and I very much look forward to sharing that with you.
I believe there are opportunities to be more efficient with the
existing resources we have today and to compete more effectively
for our clients' marketing spend. We will be implementing a
redesigned operating model that is focused on velocity of output
and measurability of the value of our work.
Every
dollar we put to work inside of AutoWeb should either be used to
make our business more efficient and cost effective or it should be
a driver of revenue. Now going forward, every one of our
initiatives will fall into one of those two categories and will be
measured with a high level of scrutiny to ensure our resources and
capital are being utilized as best as possible.
AutoWeb
stands as one of the largest and highest quality lead providers in
the automotive category. Further, we remain confident that our
click technology is a source of continued growth. We will maintain
our focus to deliver on -- to focus to deliver on being the highest
quality lead and click provider in the industry. Marketing
efficiency is critical in the automotive
industry, and we aim to continue to be on the forefront of helping
our clients achieve their goals.
-4-
Now on
the surface, this may appear to be an extension of what the company
has been doing for last several years. But we're going to be doing
it quite a bit differently. And it starts with modifying and
optimizing our traffic acquisition strategy. While I can't provide
too much detail on that today, know that we plan to evolve how we
gather demand and quality signals in a way that differs from how we
have historically worked so that we can better optimize our
acquisition methods.
We also
intend to move away from the commodity matching of buyers and
sellers, and we're going to begin to look at more data-informed
signals so that we can connect a specific targeted buyer with a
specific targeted seller. We believe this can help us differentiate
in the market over the long-term.
Now
this approach will close -- applies to both our main product
category, the leads and clicks, and will help us to improve both
the margin and volume characteristics of our business. I believe
that we can build upon our current foundation to reposition AutoWeb
for its next evolution of growth by becoming more operationally
efficient, more operationally focused, and evolving the product
with an eye towards quality and enhanced buyer and seller
matching.
Now we
understand their concerns about the auto cycle having already
peaked. But from my experience, when you deliver a quality product
that your clients need, you can succeed in any business
climate.
So in
closing, I'd like to reiterate two key points. One, we believe we
have a great set of assets and capabilities in place, and two, we
plan to become more efficient with the resources we have, and we're
going to focus on the quality of our product to drive volumes. I'm
very excited to be -- about the opportunities ahead, and look
forward to updating you on our progress along the way.
With
that, we'll open up it up -- we'll open the call for
questions.
Operator:
Thank you, sir. At
this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press the
star, then the number one key on your touchtone telephone. If your
question has been answered, or you wish to remove yourself from the
queue, you may press the pound key. To prevent any background
noise, we ask that you please place your line on mute once your
question has been stated.
And our
first question will come from the line of Sameet Sinha from B.
Riley FBR. You may proceed.
-5-
Sameet
Sinha:
Yes, hi, nice to
meet you. I had several questions, of course, but I can understand
that you are still in the process of kind of evolving your strategy
and operational focus here. So I guess my question would be, from a
cash perspective over the next few quarters -- obviously, we know
that visibility is low and you have a different way of -- that
you're planning to run the business. But what's you goal from a
cash perspective? Are you trying to run the business in a cash flow
neutral basis?
That's,
I guess, the first part. And the second thing is if you can help us
think about -- you mentioned traffic acquisition and have you're
going to change that. The legacy historical way has been -- (such
as) new marketing and other such purchases, and less focus on
search engine optimization and other such more efficient means,
from a dollar perspective, of acquiring traffic. Can you talk about
that? And then I have a couple of follow-ups.
Jared R.
Rowe:
Sure. Good to meet
you as well, Sameet. So from a cash flow perspective, it is too
early to tell. Ultimately, we do want to run this business, cash
flow neutral to cash flow positive and start building the balance
sheet back up. But really that's going to be determined by how we
think about our strategic plans over the short, medium, and then
long term.
We do
intend to get this business back to growth, and we do intend to get
this business back to profitability, and where we will walk
everyone through our plans later in the year when we have it, and
we'll be more than happy to lay that out in detail for
you.
In
terms of traffic acquisition, there are some things that we can do
short term. And there's -- candidly, there's some things that we've
already started to do. Without going into too much detail, really
what we started to do is modernize and contemporize our approach as
it relates to the traffic acquisition and arbitrage.
We
hadn't necessarily been deploying what I consider to be some of the
cutting edge approaches that other folks who are -- who do similar
things to us and other retail categories are doing, and so we're
really starting to bring some of that to bear.
So we
do think that there is opportunity for us to get more efficient and
effective with our current traffic sources. We also believe that
there are some other untapped traffic sources that we have not
aggressively pursued, but we intend to over the short-to-medium
term.
-6-
Sameet
Sinha:
Fair enough. I
guess, my next question is -- clearly, what you are telling us is
that, from a technology perspective, operational, traffic
acquisition, a lot of work needs to be done at
Autobytel.
In this
sort of competitive environment, where there are several large
players and, of course, many small players, and even the large
players are still trying to figure out the dealing with dealers --
a large number of dealers and increasing traffic acquisition costs,
increasing marketing spend, but they have much better scale than
you do. So in that sort of an environment, how are you thinking
about competing pretty much for the same things that those guys are
looking to get?
Jared R.
Rowe:
That it's a great
question. I mean, it really is because, to your point, they do have
scale in ways that we don't. However, we have assets and
capabilities that, I believe, are unique. And it's not only -- is
about having the biggest marketing spend, it's actually about being
as efficient and effective as you can be. It's also about really
understanding the needs of your clients and the needs of the
consumers and matching them more effectively.
When
you look at the automotive space overall, it really is a commodity
marketplace. And most of the players still operate in that mode.
But what we know is we know that car sales are not commodity
transactions. Right? They're considered transactions. There's lots
of elements that go into it.
We
believe that we can effectively compete in that space by being more
effective and a bit more efficient than some of the current
competitors who are in the space. And to be candid, we do like our
scale. We definitely want to grow the retail dealer count, because
that's going back backwards quarter-over-quarter and that's never a
good sign. However, we do have scale on the OEM side.
So I'm
less concerned about distribution scale. I'm more focused on how we
drive unique value delivery to our clients, because when you do
that, you can drive the growth of the distribution side that you
need.
Sameet
Sinha:
One final question.
You mentioned that you have unique assets. For us, who are looking
at this -- have been looking at this for a while, obviously the
last two quarters have been troubling. And so can you help us kind
of list two or three unique assets that you have that can help us
kind of figure out the value still embedded in the
company?
-7-
Jared R.
Rowe:
Sure. Sure. So when
I look at this -- and one of the things that I get excited about,
in particular on the new car side of the business -- it really is
the platform that we've built with the leads, the clicks send then
the e-mail remarketing campaign. We've got a unique opportunity to
integrate those three components so that we can deliver value to
our clients in integrated multitier campaign manner.
There
are folks out there who have pieces of this. However, nobody has
kind of the complete set that we do. And there is some work to be
done to make certain that they're integrated and sharing
information back and forth between the elements.
But I
do think that that represents a unique opportunity for us to
deliver leads, clicks and e-mail remarketing campaigns to drive the
kinds of engagement that our clients ultimately want, which really
is efficient engagement with the right consumer; the consumers who
are naturally predisposed to buy from them in the way that they
build product as well as the way that they sell
product.
Sameet
Sinha:
Fair enough. Thank
you very much.
Operator:
Thank you. And our
next question comes from the line of Eric Martinuzzi from (LSCC).
You may proceed.
Eric
Martinuzzi:
Thanks, and
congratulations on the opportunity and workflow that you've
inherited here, Jared. I have a question for you regarding the
strategy. You're obviously working on a plan and there's no way you
can reveal the plan before you've got the plan, but I'm just
interested in the scope of the strategic review that we're looking
at.
Are we
talking about potential asset divestitures here, potential
acquisitions, further headcount realignments? What's the
scope?
Jared R.
Rowe:
Hey Eric, thank
you. Thank you, and good to meet you. And I appreciate the -- I
appreciate your kind words. The scope is complete. We're looking at
the business end-to-end. So as we think about this, it's about
repositioning this business for long-term growth and long-term
profitability.
And so
all of the things that you have laid out as well as a couple others
are on the table and will be reviewed. Because as we think about
this, we do think about this from the standpoint of how do we drive
short-term value, and how do we position ourselves then for the
medium and long term to really transition with the market
overall?
And as
we all know, the market is going through quite a few different
evolutions. And we need to be prepared to actually meet the future
needs of this business. So when we think about the strategic
assessment of the business, everything you mentioned is absolutely
on the table.
-8-
Eric
Martinuzzi:
OK. And then with
regard to your (OE) team, your direct reports, your -- and you're
less than a month here, but as far as that process -- are we
midstream? Is it still -- we're looking at a 6 months to assemble
your team? What's the thinking there?
Jared R.
Rowe:
The team -- so
thinking is this, is that the team we have in place is fully
engaged and working on this plan. And so we're going to -- we're
going to work through the plan, and we will be moving as quickly as
possible.
We do
know, and we appreciate the fact that -- that urgency is important.
So don't think of this as a sequential approach, where we're going
to make dramatic changes to the leadership team and then deploy a
new strategic plan. We've got a team in place, we're working on
this, and we are going to optimize as we go.
Eric
Martinuzzi:
OK. Obviously,
we've got some -- there's ebbs and flows here, there's the seasonal
nature of the business. I want to ask a question about the
margins.
With
the contraction in the top line and the efficiency and the
effectiveness that you talked about -- and maybe it's a question
for Wes, but the gross margins in Q1, 23.8 percent, that's bumping
along the bottom, I can't recall, I have it on -- I think you've
acquired some businesses that (inaudible) over the years, but this
23.8 percent is obviously a tough place to see the
company.
As
we're modeling for the remainder of 2018, you guys aren't giving us
any guidance on the top line. But at least as far as the gross
margins of a business, for whatever revenue we choose to put in, is
that -- what's the right way to think about gross margins going
forward?
Wesley
Ozima:
So this is Wes.
Yes, obviously, we are expecting with the new plan that things are
obviously going to change. I mean, why -- we can't give you any
guidance from a Q1 perspective. If you wanted to use that kind of
all in, and -- I guess, it's not unreasonable to run rate Q1, I
should say, and then take out some of the onetime items like
(goodwill impairment), but that would probably be all that I could
provide at this point in time.
Eric
Martinuzzi:
OK. And the
improvement...
-9-
Jared R.
Rowe:
In our
recommendation -- well, I'm sorry, Eric -- our recommendation would
be to do that across the board.
Eric
Martinuzzi:
OK. When you say
across the board, you're talking about the expense category or the
gross margin?
Jared R.
Rowe:
Across the -- yes,
everything. Yes.
Eric
Martinuzzi:
OK. All right. And
then lastly the -- obviously, the -- you've got a situation here,
where you've paid off some debt. I'm curious to know was that --
was that the banks coming after you saying, "Hey, based on future
profitability forecasts, we're going to need to rework this," and
you guys just saying, "We're not going to dink around it. We'll pay
it off and be done with." And then I have another question on the
cash.
Jared R.
Rowe:
So we talked to the
banks while renegotiating. What we found is we found it was just
easier for us to move on. So that's what we did. We paid it down,
and we're moving on. And we were in a good cash position, we
believe from a balance sheet perspective for what we need to do,
short to medium term.
And,
again, we need to put our strategy in place so that we really
understand what the capital needs of the business are going to be
longer term. And so we view that as a kind of a later phase of this
process.
Eric
Martinuzzi:
OK. And again, not
looking for full-year guidance here, but just -- as I think about
this business' ability to thrive is one thing, but survive is
another. We just had a quarter where we burned through -- I think,
the cash usage was $1.7 million. And I know Q1 is seasonally a
challenging quarter even in good times. I also know you had the
restructure in February as well as some of the former CEO-related
costs. Is this a cash flow positive business, (by -- we're)
rewiring the car at 55 miles an hour?
Jared R.
Rowe:
So as we think
about it, we think we've got a good cash position to do what we
need to do in terms of resetting the strategic direction. And then
once we've reset the strategic direction, we'll take a look at just
overall the -- how much capital we need and how we plan on driving
the business ahead. So unfortunately, without having the strategic
plan in place, it is difficult for me to answer that question. So
that's kind of the best I can answer it as we sit right
now.
Eric
Martinuzzi:
OK. I appreciate
you taking my questions, and look forward to the
update.
Jared R.
Rowe:
Thanks,
Eric.
-10-
Operator:
Thank you. And our
next question comes from the line of Gary Prestopino from
Barrington Research. Your line is now open.
Gary Frank
Prestopino:
Hey Jared, a couple
of questions here. First of all, in your career, various
auto-related businesses, have you ever undertaken a turnaround like
you've got to undertake at AutoWeb?
Jared R.
Rowe:
Hi, Gary, how are
you doing? Yes, I have, actually. I have. Most of my opportunities
have been put in front of me, and what they normally are is they're
businesses that are need of being modernized and contemporized in
some form or fashion, with a common theme of taking current assets
and capabilities, driving growth out of the core business, and then
extending the business to really position it for longer-term
growth. So this pattern, in terms of this opportunity, is very
similar to what I have done in a few instances.
Gary Frank
Prestopino:
And I assume that
that's really what attracted you here?
Jared R.
Rowe:
It is. It is. It's
that plus -- it's that plus -- I view AutoWeb as a business that
has really unfulfilled potential. We have a product set that is
interesting to our clients. It's needed. Marketing efficiency is
something that this industry needs overall. I think we're well
positioned to drive it. And I think, with some focus, some
execution, and a revised strategic plan, I really think we can get
this business growing again, and get it moving in the right
direction, and do some good for the clients.
Gary Frank
Prestopino:
So I know you're
not -- you've got to get the strategic plan going, but this
company's kind of been put together via acquisitions. Is part of
the strategic plan a reengineering of your technology
platform?
Jared R.
Rowe:
With integration
work is going to be some of the work, I will tell you that. And
again, that's a common theme in my past lives as well, is when I
took a look at the pieces of the business, integrating them, and
getting to a place where we have a more efficient and effective
execution model, technology as well as nontechnology related, it's
absolutely an opportunity for us.
Gary Frank
Prestopino:
OK. And then I may
have missed it, but when are you due to come out with this
strategic plan? Or did you give a date?
Jared R.
Rowe:
No, we haven't
given a date. We haven't given a date. We're going to do it as soon
as humanly possible. And so -- because we know sooner is rather --
is better than later. But we also want to be thoughtful about
putting it together. So as we sit right now, Gary, my apologies. I
wish I can give you a date, but we're going to do it as soon as we
can.
-11-
Gary Frank
Prestopino:
No. No. No. That's
fine. And then lastly, I think you also mentioned that you had --
you met with some dealer customers, is that correct?
Jared R.
Rowe:
I met with a whole
slew of constituents, all different forms.
Gary Frank
Prestopino:
OK. Just as you're
talking with the dealer customers, because they're the most
important, what's the puts and takes there? I mean, what do they
like about AutoWeb? What have they -- what don't they like about
AutoWeb?
Jared R.
Rowe:
So I'll dig into my
full past here, because I've competed with AutoWeb as well or
companies like AutoWeb. And what I'll tell you that -- is from a
dealer's perspective, at least in my experience, they like
measurability, right? They like folks who are willing to put skin
in the game, and are willing to actually prove the value that they
deliver on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
And so
when you look at our core product offering, the core new car
platform we have with clicks, leads, and e-mail campaigns that are
followed up, that really is a performance-measured media
platform.
And
then that's what I like about this opportunity. And to be candid
with you, the reason I like it is because that's one of the things
I've heard over and over again in my career from dealers is, "You
help me sell cars, and if you can prove you're helping me sell
cars, we'll buy all you can sell us."
The one
thing that you hear about the leads businesses in general is there
are some volatility in terms of quality. And so that's one of the
reasons why you're hearing me talk so much about client value
delivery, and to be candid with you, that's one of the places that
I tend to live. Because I believe very strongly that if you deliver
a quality product to your client relentlessly -- good market, bad
market, up cycle, down cycle, you can still grow, and you can still
put together a nice business.
So
we're going to focus on that, Gary, making certain that we are
delivering the highest quality products and services that we can,
and making certain that we are driving and marketing
…
Gary Frank
Prestopino:
OK, thank you so
much.
-12-
Jared R.
Rowe:
No worries. Thank
you.
Operator:
Thank you. And as a
reminder, if you would like to ask a question at this time, please
press star, then one. And our next question comes from the line of
Ed Woo from Ascendiant Capital. Your line is now open.
Ed
Woo:
Yes, nice to meet
you, Jared. And my question's more of a industry view. I know you
mentioned that if you are able to deliver the right products at a
right value to your end customers, you could thrive in any
environment. But as you're talking to your constituents and the
dealers out there, how concerned are they with industry sales right
now? It seems to be holding up relatively well, and people are --
seem to be buying up the big profitable trucks. But are there
legitimate concerns that the party may sharply end
soon?
Jared R.
Rowe:
I don't know --
good to meet you, by the way, and thank you. Thank you for the
question. I don't know how sharply it'll end. If you look at the
market overall, right, we still got healthy (SAR) on the new car
side, call it $17 million. We still got a healthy (SAR) on the used
car side, call it $39 million, $40 million.
But to
your point, we are starting to see some stressing going on inside
the business, right? Incentives are up, right, call it 10 percent,
11 percent of the average transaction price is now incentives. And
that's up from a year ago, and depending on whose numbers you
believe from last year it's 6 percent to 7 percent. So you've seen
a pretty significant jump there.
We also
are in an environment where interest rates are starting to rise;
that's never good for the car business. On top of that, you're
seeing the loans get longer, right, and I think the average is now
close to 70 months for an (average) loan, which is up from just
last year and a year ago. We're also seeing transaction prices
continue to go up, which means monthly payments are going up, and
as you know this is a business that thrives our monthly
payments.
So
while I say all that, and I do see that there is some stressing of
the business, we still do continue to plod along here. And the nice
thing about what I think has gone on over the last -- call it 10
years, from an industry perspective, is I think we have learned how
to sustain these positive cycles much longer than we used to be
able to.
So I'm
still optimistic about our ability as an industry to continue on
this path. I do think that we're going to have to become more
efficient. And when -- again, when you look at dealers and the kind
of money they're spending on a per unit basis, call it, north of
$650 a car to sell a car, I think that's the opportunity for
somebody like us to really help them make certain that they can
measure the value of each and every one of those marketing
dollars.
So it's
an industry that continue to plug along. It's -- it's -- you are
seeing some kind of stresses inside of it. But, again, I'm pretty
bullish on the next year to 2 years.
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Ed
Woo:
Great. Well, thank
you and good luck. I'm looking forward to hearing about your plan
when you have released it. Thank you.
Jared R.
Rowe:
Thank you so
much.
Operator:
Thank you, and at
this time, this concludes our question and answer session. I would
now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Rowe for closing
remarks.
Jared R.
Rowe:
Well, thank you,
everybody. We really appreciate you joining the call. And I also
just want to thank my team. They've done an awful lot of good work
to really pull all this information together and make this happen.
So thank you to the team as well.
And we
really do look forward to meeting with you over the next several
months. And if we don't have a chance to meet with you personally
before we get to the next call, I do look forward to talking to you
on the next call as well. So thank you for everything. And
hopefully, we'll talk soon.
Operator:
Ladies and
gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may
disconnect. Thank you for your participation.
END
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