Autobytel has bought up fellow car site Autotropolis, which features various resources for car buyers, including a “vehicle selector aid” and articles on different types of cars, for $15 million. The site has about 350,000 unique visitors a month, according to Google’s DoubleClick ad planner.
Both Autobytel and Autotropolis make money through sales leads. Autobytel says Autotropolis generated about $10 million in revenues in last year. Autobytel reported revenue of $53 million.
Autobytel, which was hit hard by the recession, put itself up for sale in September 2008. The company took itself off the block five months later, saying a deal would not give its shareholders enough value given the state of the market.
An SEC filing shows that Autobytel is paying a total of $15 million for Autotropolis, including $9 million in cash, $5 million in convertible debt, and $1 million in cash depending on whether certain targets are met. There are also some more details about the deal in the release here.

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