Trader Corporation is a Canadian technology company based in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

specializing in classified automotive advertising. The company's flagship product is AutoTrader, an online marketplace for buying and selling new and used vehicles. The company is owned by private equity firm

Thoma Bravo Thoma Bravo, LP is an American private equity and growth capital firm based in Chicago, Illinois. It is known for being particularly active in acquiring enterprise software companies and has over $130billion in assets under management . It ...

. The company was originally a part of Trader Classified Media, which was founded in 1987 by

John MacBain John H. McCall MacBain (born February 13, 1958) is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist who is the founder of the McCall MacBain Foundation and Pamoja Capital SA, its investment arm. Prior to establishing the McCall MacBain Foundation, in ...

. Trader Corporation’s current CEO and President is Sebastian Baldwin.

History

AutoTrader (Trader Corporation) was founded in 1975 in

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west end, Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River (Ontario), Humber River, on the ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. The company was known for its ''AutoTrader'' magazine, which was published under different names depending on the geographic region. In 1987, AutoTrader was acquired by John MacBain, founder, president, and CEO of Trader Classified Media. Trader Classified Media included over 500 print titles and 57 internet sites in 20 countries. Trader Classified Media went public in 2000 and was publicly traded on

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

and the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange. Trader Corporation was formed in June 2006 with the integration of Classified Media (Canada) Holdings Inc. (more commonly known as Trader Canada) and Trader Media Corporation. The two companies were acquired by Yellow Pages Income Fund from Trader Classified Media that same year. Yellow Pages purchased Classified Media (Canada) Holdings Inc. for $760 million and Trader Media Corporation for $436 million. In July 2010, Trader Corporation acquired CanadianDriver.com, which offered Canada-focused automotive reviews and resources. The site was rebranded as Autos.ca. Yellow Pages sold its Trader Corporation division in March 2011 to London-based private equity firm

Apax Partners Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of March 2024, the firm had raised and adv ...

for $745 million. Apax Partners previously purchased a 49.9% stake in U.K.-based Trader Media Group in 2007, and acquired the remaining 50.1% in 2014. In June 2012, Trader Corporation stopped publishing the AutoTrader magazine and several of its other magazines and pushed a move towards online car advertising. In 2016, Apax sold Trader Corporation to Thoma Bravo for C$1.57 billion (US$1.22 billion). In the same year, editorial content was moved to the AutoTrader.ca domain; Autos.ca has been put into maintenance mode. Since 2017, the company has awarded the best cars in each segment in Canada. In March 2018, Convertus announced a partnership with Trader Corporation. In May 2018, Trader Corporation announced a strategic investment in DealerBreacher, a digital advertising services company based in Montreal. The company announced its first Editor-in-Chief, Jodi Lai, in November 2019. In June 2019, Trader Corporation acquired

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

digital marketplace LesPac. In January 2020, Trader Corporation invested in Motoinsight, a provider of digital retailing solutions for the automotive industry. In May 2020, AutoTrader.ca added online transaction capabilities and allowed Canadian users to purchase cars on the website. In June 2021, Trader Corporation invested in Activix, a software development firm that serves automobile dealerships. In February 2022, AutoTrader announced the start of a partnership with digital communications company that specializes in automotive, RAPID RTC.

Activities

AutoTrader.ca (French: AutoHebdo.net) is a Canadian online automotive marketplace operated by Trader Corporation. The online marketplace is the main consumer product of Trader Corporation. The site hosts classified listings for new and used passenger vehicles, as well as motorcycles, trailers, commercial vehicles, heavy equipment, personal watercraft, and other motorized vehicles. The site also offers news, vehicle reviews, expert tips and advice, and a vehicle information database. The Autos.ca YouTube channel was launched in 2012, and was later renamed AutoTrader Canada along with the content migration. The channel hosts weekly vehicle reviews, as well as podcast episodes in video format. Launched in 2022, the biweekly podcast Own the Road with AutoTrader is hosted by editor-in-chief Jodi Lai and road test editor Dan Ilika. The pair discuss various automotive topics in an informal style. In 2017, AutoTrader started an annual awards program highlighting the best vehicles in each segment in Canada. The website has an app with the same name available on

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

and the

AppStore An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not in ...

References

{{Reflist Advertising agencies of Canada Canadian companies established in 2006 2016 mergers and acquisitions Business services companies established in 2006 Apax Partners companies