Canadian-Based Trader Corp. Buys Stake in Dealer.com

Canadian-based Trader Corp., the vertical media business of Yellow Pages Income Fund, pays $35 million for a 20% equity stake in Dealer.com this week, with the option to increase its share over time.

Dealer.com will begin deploying its website services to Trader’s network of nearly 4,000 Canadian dealerships in second-quarter of 2009.

The applications will be offered under Trader’s AutoTrader brand, which has no relationship to the U.S.-based AutoTrader.com.

The solutions will include a French-language component.

Dealer.com announced last summer it was building websites and providing online search marketing for Chrysler LLC’s 3,300 dealers, taking the Internet firm’s dealership-customer base to about 8,000 dealers.