Avis parent Cendant Corp. has agreed to buy the assets of bankrupt Budget Group Inc., including Budget's Ryder TRS Inc. consumer truck rental unit.

In addition to Avis, Cendant owns travel-related companies, such as Days Inn and Ramada, plus franchise real estate brokerages, including Century 21. The company will pay $107.5 million for Budget and assume $2.7 billion in debt. It has said it will operate Avis and Budget separately, but hasn't disclosed plans for the truck rental unit.
Ryder TRS Inc. is not affiliated with Miami-based Ryder System or its Ryder Truck Rental Subsidiary and, in fact, has been the focus of a recent legal battle over use of the name.
Ryder System, one of the country’s largest commercial truck lease/rental companies, sold its consumer-oriented yellow truck rental operation in 1996. Those business operations were subsequently purchased by Budget Group. The deal included a trademark license agreement that gave Budget the right to use the Ryder trademark, with certain limitations, until 2005. Last March Ryder terminated the license agreement after Budget ran television ads that Ryder said falsely implied an affiliation between the two companies. Ryder sued, but a U.S. Bankruptcy Court recently ruled that Chapter 11 bankruptcy protected Budget from litigation. There is no word yet as to how the purchase will affect that suit or the licensing agreement.