While New York city eagerly awaits the arrival of our bike share program (soon, they swear) something interesting has just happened in the more established world of car shares. Car rental company Avis just bought the industry leader, Zipcar. Assuming the $500 million deal is approved, the merger should be complete in the Spring.
The purchase of the 12-year-old car sharing service by the giant rental company (Avis also owns Budget) hopefully won't be detrimental to the popular Zipcar service, the appeal of which Avis seems to understand. "We see car sharing as highly complementary to traditional car rental," Avis CEO Ronald Nelson said announcing the news. "With rapid growth potential and representing a scalable opportunity for us as a combined company."
Avis seems to believe that it can save a lot of money for both companies (think: $50 to $70 million) thanks to "annual synergies." But at the same time the sharing service, which is in 175 countries and has 10,000 locations, is expected to run as an independent subsidiary and will still continue with its planned move to new headquarters in Boston. It will also continue to be the way half of the people you know get their new Smörbolls and Grönkullas home from Ikea.
