Hearst Autos has acquired Bring a Trailer, the popular online auction platform filed with enthusiast-oriented vehicles.
Bring a Trailer has more than 415,000 users and more than 175,000 registered bidders vet each vehicle. It was founded by Randy Nonnenberg and Gentry Underwood and will benefit from the scope of Hearst Autos’ business.
“Bring a Trailer represents another step in the evolution of Hearst Magazines, one that connects passion points to content and now, marketplaces,” Hearst Magazines president Troy Young said in a statement. “At its core, Bring a Trailer is about curation, which is what our brands have always been about.”
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The auction platform will continue to be run as an independent business led by Nonnenberg and his team out of the current San Francisco headquarters. Hearst Autos says it will support Bring a Trailer’s offerings, community and transactions through investments in robust technology and new products and features. Additionally, Hearst Autos’ brands of Car and Driver, Road & Track, and Autoweek will publish editorial content and insights while also providing business and sponsorship opportunities.
“I’m very excited to continue to lead Bring a Trailer as we partner with Hearst Autos,” Nonnenberg said. “We can now keep all of the best parts of the business intact while enhancing our capabilities to address our huge product demand and user traffic growth. I had Road & Track magazine pages hung on my walls as a kid and they helped shape my automotive passion. This is really an amazing next step in the Bring a Trailer journey, and it will allow us to solidify our tech foundation so that we can add new features and better serve the automotive enthusiast community.”
