Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Edmunds.com Buys Hackathon Winner CarCodeSMS

Los Angeles-based Edmunds.com said Tuesday that it has acquired CarCodeSMS, a developer of mobile service to allow car shoppers to engage in one-on-one text messaging with dealers. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Edmunds.com said it has renamed CarCode SMS under the new name Edmunds CarCode as part of the acquisition, which came as a direct result of CarCodeSMS winning a recent "hackathon" sponsored by the Edmunds.com. CarCodeSMS had won $20,000 as part of Edmunds.com's Hackomotive competition earlier this year, and also had participated in a three month, accelerator program in house at Edmunds.com called Fastlane. As part of the buy, Edmunds.com said it would make the CarCode service free to all of its franchise partners. CarCodeSMS had won won Edmunds' second annual Hackomotive challenge last February.

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