Autobytel Buys Rival in $9.4-Million Stock Deal

Autobytel Inc. said Wednesday it completed its purchase of rival Internet car-shopping service Autoweb.com Inc. for about $9.4 million in stock to expand its customer base.

Each of Autoweb.com’s 29.6 million shares will be exchanged for 0.3553 of an Autobytel share, the companies said. Shares of Irvine-based Autobytel closed Wednesday at 88 cents, off 1 cent in Nasdaq trading.

Autobytel said it also changed its name from Autobytel.com.

The combined company expects to have annual sales of more than $100 million and about 3 million visitors to its Web sites each month. Autobytel said it will have about 6,000 dealers and 25 auto makers as customers.