edmunds.com

Edmunds.com Inc. (stylized as edmunds) is an American online resource for automotive inventory and information, including expert car reviews based on testing at the company's private facility. 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.