LOS ANGELES, Jan. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — B. Riley & Co., LLC (B. Riley) www.brileyco.com, a leading full service independent investment bank, announced that it has served as the exclusive financial advisor to OneCommand and The Higher Gear Group in their announced merger.

B. Riley Managing Directors Michael Lowell and Adam Little led the banking team in this engagement with OneCommand and The Higher Gear Group. The merger was announced by the two companies January 23, 2014. Terms were undisclosed.

B. Riley has extensive experience in providing banking and advisory services to the automotive industry. Most recently, it acted as exclusive financial advisor to Autobytel in its acquisition of AutoUSA, a subsidiary of AutoNation Inc.

“B. Riley’s experience and expertise was instrumental in executing this strategic merger,” said Jeff Hart, President and CEO at OneCommand.

“We value the professionalism of the B. Riley banking team and their thorough understanding of the automotive technology market,” said Robert C. Gruen, President and CEO at The Higher Gear Group.

Mason, Ohio-based OneCommand (www.onecommand.com) is an industry leader in deploying leading-edge communications technology. Its Customer Marketing and Loyalty Automation Platform™ is designed for auto dealers to drive customer loyalty and is used throughout North America. For more than a decade, OneCommand’s proven platform of voice, email, text, direct mail, and social communications has been delivering results that are targeted, turnkey, and trigger-based.

Schaumberg, Illinois-based The Higher Gear Group (www.highergear.com) is a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software and related services to automotive dealers throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada. It is known for the highest in-dealership CRM usage through the use of intuitive and user friendly interfaces. The Company’s software tracks the entire lifecycle of retail automotive customers, facilitating the management, retention and conversion of customer leads at dealerships.

OneCommand’s investors include Insight Venture Partners and Escalate Capital Partners. The Higher Gear Group is backed by H.I.G. Capital.

About B. RILEY & CO.:
B. Riley & Co. is a leading independent investment bank which provides a full array of corporate finance, research, sales, trading and otcqx dad services to corporate, institutional and high net worth individual clients. Investment banking services include initial, secondary and follow-on offerings, institutional private placements, and merger and acquisitions advisory to public and private middle market companies. The firm is recognized for its distinguished equity research. Founded in 1997, B. RILEY is headquartered in Los Angeles and maintains offices in Newport Beach, San Francisco, Del Mar and New York. It is a member of FINRA and SIPC. For more information, please visit www.brileyco.com.

SOURCE B. Riley & Co., LLC