Cars.com (CARS) began trading on the NYSE on 1 June 2017

The company, which provides car buyers with research and makes money from selling ads to car dealers and automakers, has grown into one of Chicago's largest digital media businesses, with revenue of $633 million last year and a headcount of nearly 1,300, according to a regulatory filing for the IPO.

• Sector: Consumer Cyclical
• Industry: Auto & Truck Dealerships
• Full Time Employees: 1,300
• CEO Alex Vetter
• Founded in 1998
• Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois
• http://www.cars.com

The company's stock rose nearly 9 percent today to close at $27.28 a share, giving the company a market capitalization of $1.95 billion.

Cars was launched in 1998 by a group of newspapers, including Chicago Tribune's parent, that were eager to hang on to lucrative classified auto advertising. Back then it was a division of now-defunct Chicago-based Classified Ventures. Now it's an advertising juggernaut. Revenue climbed 6 percent last year, lifting net income 11 percent to $176.4 million.

Cars, with a clutch of sites including Auto.com and PickupTrucks.com, plus mobile applications, has grown so much that it's moving into a larger building this month, shifting west from the Loop to the other side of the Chicago River near Union Station

In the twisting corporate history of Cars, Gannett bought out its other newspaper owners in a 2014 deal that valued the digital company at $2.5 billion. Then Gannett split into two companies in 2015, cleaving its newspaper business from a group of digital businesses, including Cars, that became Tegna. Tegna spun off the Cars unit last month.