CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -

CarGurus has wrapped up its purchase of a majority stake in CarOffer. 

The company announced early Thursday evening that its acquisition of 51% interest in the automated instant vehicle trade platform, a deal initially announced in December, had closed.

CarGurus also has the ability to purchase CarOffer’s remaining equity interest over the next three years.

When it was announced last month, the deal was valued at $275 million.

“We are thrilled to welcome the CarOffer team to the CarGurus family and excited to join forces to drive further innovation and value for our customers,” CarGurus chief financial officer Jason Trevisan said in Thursday's news release. 

“Digital wholesale creates exciting new opportunities for efficiencies in the marketplace, especially as more of the automotive buying journey shifts online,” Trevisan said. “By combining CarGurus and CarOffer capabilities, we can deliver a powerful new solution for dealers to buy and sell the right inventory at the right price. We believe this will not only be a win for dealers, but for consumers as well.”

Bruce Thompson founded CarOffer and is its chief executive officer. He will continue to head up CarOffer from its Plano, Texas headquarters. 

“I’m incredibly proud of what the CarOffer team has accomplished so far, and I can’t wait to begin this next phase of our growth in partnership with a company as pioneering as CarGurus,” Thompson said in a release. “We see tremendous potential in this combination, and we look forward to getting to work integrating our capabilities and continuing to build better solutions for dealers.”

The purchase gives CarGurus the ability to offer dealers additional wholesale capabilities, leading to a digital solution by which dealers can sell and acquire retail and wholesale vehicles, the company said in the initial December announcement. CarGurus said expanding into wholesale is a key piece of its overall platform strategy.

“CarOffer is disrupting the traditional wholesale auction model in the same way that CarGurus gained our position as the leading online consumer automotive marketplace in the U.S., by leveraging technology, data and analytics to build more transparent solutions,” Trevisan said in the announcement from last month.

“The combination of CarGurus’ industry-leading dealer network and our Instant Market Value retail pricing, and CarOffer’s instant trade technology and logistics capabilities, creates a powerful selling platform,” he said. “We believe we will be the most valuable partner to help dealers sell more cars at retail and now also sell and acquire cars in the wholesale channel.”