CHICAGO -- Cars.com said it finished a strategic review that included a possible sale with “no actionable bids” for the company and “will focus on executing its strategic plan as an independent public company.”
Shares in the company plunged 34 percent, or $6.22, to close at $11.82 in Monday trading.
"The board is fully focused on driving shareholder value. We have conducted an exhaustive strategic review process, engaging with several interested parties to evaluate the relative benefits of various strategic alternatives with the purpose of maximizing value for our shareholders," Chairman Scott Forbes said in a statement. "The process did not yield actionable options for a sale of the company.”
“We remain open to all potential value creating opportunities," Forbes also said in the statement.
The 10-month process involved 29 “interested, prospective bidders,” the company said.
“The board was actively engaged throughout this rigorous process and unanimously determined that delivering on the company's strategic plan is the best path to driving shareholder value,” Cars.com said.
Over the past few years, Cars.com has faced pressure from activist investor Starboard Value, which owns a 9.6 percent stake in the company. In March 2018, in an agreement with Starboard, Cars.com appointed Michael Kelly and Bryan Wiener to the board.
Kelly is a longtime media and technology executive with former roles as CEO of the Weather Channel Companies and president of AOL Media Networks. Wiener was CEO of digital advertising agency 360i from 2005 to 2013.
"Those directors, including a member of the transaction committee, were actively engaged in the sale process," Cars.com said. "All actions and decisions of both the committee and the full board were unanimous."
Meanwhile, Cars.com reported a second-quarter net loss of $6 million, compared with net income of $12.7 million in the year-ago period. Its revenues slipped 12 percent to $148.2 million.
The company said the decline in revenue was due to a decline in dealer count and a $7.9 million drop in national advertising. Cars.com had 18,891 dealer customers at the end of the quarter, compared with 19,300 at the end of the first quarter of this year.
