Strategic Agreement With Ally

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Strategic Agreement With Ally [Abstract]

Strategic Agreement With Ally

16. Strategic Agreement with Ally

On February 10, 2010, DealerTrack entered into a strategic relationship with Ally Financial. Under the terms of the agreement, Ally became a financing option on the DealerTrack credit application processing network and DealerTrack agreed to make a one-time payment to Ally of $15.0 million, which was paid in May 2010. Ally continues to accept credit applications through a competitive system, of which it owns a portion.

The one-time $15.0 million payment is being recorded as a reduction in transaction revenue over the period of expected benefit of approximately five years. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011, we recorded contra revenue related to transaction revenue from the Ally strategic relationship of $0.8 million and $2.4 million, respectively. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010, we recorded contra revenue related to transaction revenue from the Ally strategic relationship of $0.6 million and $0.8 million, respectively. As of September 30, 2011, we have $11.0 million of the payment remaining to be amortized to contra revenue, of which, we have classified $3.2 million in prepaid expenses and other current assets and $7.8 million in other long-term assets. As of December 30, 2010, $13.4 million of the payment was remaining to be amortized to contra revenue, of which, $3.2 million was classified in prepaid expenses and other current assets and $10.2 million was classified in other long-term assets.