Thousands of car dealers crippled by 2-day cyberattack

AutoNation Inc. led shares of publicly listed dealership groups lower Thursday, falling as much as 4.6% in intraday trading. Lithia Motors Inc., Group 1 Automotive Inc. and Sonic Automotive Inc. also slumped.

Greg Thornton, the general manager of a dealership group in Frederick, Maryland, said his stores’ CDK customer-relations software had been down since early Wednesday morning.

“I can only assume that CDK is working all hands on deck to resolve this,” said Thornton, whose group includes Audi and Volvo stores. “We’ve had no conversations with them in person or over the phone.”

The National Automobile Dealers Association said Wednesday it was actively seeking information from CDK to determine the nature and scope of the cyber incident.

CDK was spun off by Automatic Data Processing Inc. in 2014, then agreed to be acquired in April 2022 by the investment company Brookfield Business Partners in an all-cash deal valued at $6.4 billion.