It all began innocently enough. A quick phone call was made. A simple advertisement was placed. And, seemingly overnight, an empire was created. Roy Warshawsky, a gritty, bespectacled business-savvy ...

Walk up to any auto parts counter, and they’ll ask you the usual question—”year, make, and model?” If you’re driving a 2022 Ford F-150, or a 2007 Honda Civic, you’d expect those to be in the database.

ProQuest Co., a publisher of information software for education and automotive markets, is shedding its automotive electronic parts-catalog business. The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company has signed an ...