The founders of two dealership technology companies CDK Global Inc. acquired last year are no longer leading those businesses.
Dealership technology provider CDK, of Hoffman Estates, Ill., confirmed that Andy Moss, founder and CEO of digital retailing platform Roadster, and James Hall, founder and CEO of insurance technology provider Salty Dot Inc., are not involved with the companies.
Additionally, former Roadster COO Rudi Thun left CDK in the summer, a CDK spokesman told Automotive News. Summer was also when Moss departed, the spokesman said. And Michelle Denogean, who had been chief marketing officer for Roadster, left in March to become chief marketing officer of Side, a real estate brokerage, according to her LinkedIn profile.
CDK acquired Roadster in June 2021 for $360 million. At the time, CDK said Moss would continue to work on Roadster’s product and engineering and on CDK’s modern retail product strategy.
Automotive News directed messages seeking comment on the departures to Moss, Thun and Denogean.
In July, CDK was acquired by investment firm Brookfield Business Partners in a transaction that topped $8 billion and resulted in CDK no longer operating as a public company.
CDK CEO Brian MacDonald, who rejoined the dealership software giant as its leader in July after the Brookfield acquisition was completed, told Automotive News that it’s “quite normative” for founders of startups to move on to new ventures after their companies are acquired.
“As I understand it, those moves were well-planned in advance and took place before Brookfield ownership and really had nothing to do with the ownership change,” MacDonald said.
Both founders had previously said they were staying with CDK.
Salty, which sells software enabling consumers to purchase auto insurance at the same time they’re buying a vehicle, was acquired in the fall of 2021. At the time, CDK said Hall, who launched Salty in 2019, would join the company as its head of embedded insurance.
MacDonald said last week that “after the sale of the company, James never assumed a day-to-day operating position at CDK from the time the acquisition closed sometime last year.”
Messages seeking comment were left with Hall. He is now a founder and executive chair of Embedded Insurance Inc., an insurance technology provider started in 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile.
