Shift closes merger with CarLotz
Shift’s merger with CarLotz has officially closed, the company announced Friday.
The deal for CarLotz, a consignment-to-retail used-car marketplace, to merge with Shift, a used-car ecommerce platform, was first announced in August.
CarLotz shareholders at the time of the merger receive roughly 0.705 shares of Shift common stock for each CarLotz common stock they own. That translates to an aggregate of 84.4 million Shift common stock shares.
With the closing, Jason Krikorian and Manish Patel have resigned from Shift’s board of directors. Meanwhile, James Skinner and Luis Ignacio Solorzano have joined the board.
“On behalf of the board and entire team at Shift, we’d like to thank Jason and Manish for their endless support, advice, and mentorship over the years,” Shift CEO Jeff Clementz said in a news release. “While we will miss their presence on the board, we’re excited to welcome three new members to help us build a winning, profitable future for Shift.”
Clementz added: “As we welcome new members from CarLotz to our team, I’d like to thank Lev, Ozan, and the rest of the CarLotz management team for partnering with us through a successful close.
“We look forward to combining the best assets from both companies to create a leading destination for used auto retail, allowing consumers to shop and buy cars seamlessly however they prefer, online or in-store.”
The businesses are largely complementary in their operations.
In Shift’s presentation slides on the merger back in August, one of the benefits listed was their complementary geographies, for example.
Shift would also benefit from the relationships that CarLotz has on the consignment side, given the online retailer more sourcing power.
“CarLotz, obviously, has been a fantastic consignment retailer,” Clementz, then the incoming Shift CEO, said during an earnings call in August. “We’ve long been impressed with their partners, their strategic relationships. And we think that there’s an opportunity in the future to leverage those, but that’s a little bit of a future opportunity.”