Asset Light Autos: Avis buys Zipcar

Nice news for shareholders in car share company Zipcar: Avis Budget Group just put in a bid to buy it for $12.25 per share in cash, a 49% premium over the closing price on December 31, 2012, valuing Zipcar at around $500 million. You could see this as a standard piece of corporate strategy: protecting and extending a business by buying out a competitor. Or you could see it as another example of the move towards an “Asset-Light” world, renting rather than owning. Strategy queen Mary Meeker sees the Asset Heavy lifestyle as consuming space, time and money. Currently, it’s a generational thing: for Under 25s life is becoming Asset Light. Take music, where buying albums and CDs in shops has been replaced by paying for access via Spotify, Pandora and iTunes - and consuming it via internet-enabled devices. Mary Meeker gives other examples of the Asset Light generation in her Internet Trends Update 3.12.12 available here. When it comes to personal transport, think Asset Light: give up on car owning, just rent or share one when you need to. (imge: Droiddog.com)