Press Release
December 1, 2021

Holland & Knight Advises NextCar in Acquisition of Autonomy Brand and Intellectual Property Brand Library

ORANGE COUNTY, CA (December 1, 2021) – Holland & Knight advised NextCar/NXCR, the fintech and insurtech vehicle subscription platform founded by auto retail, auto finance and insurtech entrepreneurs Scott Painter and Georg Bauer, on the completion of its acquisition of the Autonomy brand and IP brand library from Micro Focus. The deal was announced on Nov. 24.

The acquisition of Autonomy includes the primary global domain, Autonomy.com, along with a family of country and subdomain extensions as well as trademark applications, goodwill and related brand IP. Autonomy was previously a Hewlett-Packard company that was later acquired by Micro Focus.

Mr. Painter has been at the forefront of the digital revolution in the automotive industry over the past 20 years, with a mission to make buying and owning a vehicle easier through technology. He has founded dozens of automotive technology and fintech brands that have found mass appeal with in-market car shoppers. Each of these brands represents innovations that have advanced how consumers and dealers go to market. Painter founded CarsDirect.com (now Internet Brands); TrueCar; Fair, which pioneered used-vehicle subscriptions and the Car-as-a-Service (CaaS) model; and now Autonomy.

Mr. Bauer is widely considered one of the architects of modern vehicle leasing. He was the founding CFO and later CEO of Mercedes-Benz Credit Corporation and subsequently led the expansion of BMW Financial Services globally. He was also responsible for building Tesla's financial services business in Europe and Asia in support of the launch of the Model S. Prior to co-founding Autonomy, Bauer partnered with Painter to co-found Fair, the first used-vehicle subscription platform, creating the CaaS category.

Holland & Knight Partners Bryan Gadol and Daniel Barsky led the firm's representation of NextCar/NXCR.

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