TrueCar Files IPO for up to $125 Million in Common Stock

By Ben Fox Rubin 

TrueCar Inc. filed for an initial public offering Friday, with the car-shopping website looking to raise up to $125 million.

The filing comes just after the company on Thursday said John Krafcik, the former chief executive of Hyundai Motor America, joined TrueCar's board.

TrueCar, founded in 2005 and based in Santa Monica, Calif., provides users with pricing information on new and used cars, and connects them to its network of certified dealers. TrueCar users have purchased more than 1.1 million cars from those dealers, including nearly 400,000 last year.

The company has had a renaissance since going through a crisis in 2012. The service was growing quickly, selling the notion to buyers that they could get the lowest price possible for cars. It tracks purchases of vehicles and shows consumers what the highest and lowest price people paid for a car in their area. Dealers began to complain that consumers were demanding prices that were so low they couldn't make money and the company lost thousands of customers, and even drew attention from some state regulators saying the service violated consumer protection laws. The company was losing money and needed a cash infusion from investors to survive.

The Web firm changed its marketing and provided more tools to dealers to balance the transaction and the company has thrived since.

While the company is currently focused primarily on new car transactions, it said in a regulatory filing Friday that it intends to introduce new services based around car buying and car ownership. For instance, the company said it is developing TrueTrade to provide users with an estimated daily market value for their existing cars and a guaranteed trade-in price.

For 2013, the company posted a loss of $25.1 million, compared with a year-earlier loss of $74.5 million. Revenue jumped 68% to $134 million.

TrueCar said it intends to apply to list its stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol "TRUE."

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. will act as the joint book-running managers for the offering.

Write to Ben Fox Rubin at [e-mail]

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