Car rental company Avis Budget Group Inc said it will purchase Zipcar Inc for about $500 million in cash to enter the fast-growing U.S. car-sharing market.The offer of $12.25 per share is at a premium of 49 percent to Zipcar's Monday close."We see car sharing as highly complementary to traditional car rental, with rapid growth potential and representing a scalable opportunity for us as a combined company," Ronald Nelson, Avis' chief executive, said in a statement.Rising gasoline prices have driven demand for car sharing, attracting car rental companies. Enterprise Holdings Inc, the largest U.S. car rental company, is also expanding aggressively in the car-sharing market.
Avis Budget Group, Inc. (Avis Budget) operates two brands in the global vehicle rental industry through Avis and Budget. Shares of CAR remained unchanged at $19.82. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $10.59 and as high as $20.49. On average, 1253920 shares of CAR exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 0.
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