April 6, 2017 — (UPDATE — SEE BELOW) Acquisition activity among automotive retail vendors has ground to a halt in the the first quarter this year, according to data compiled by The Banks Report. Other than Solera Holding’s purchase of the British-based Autodata the first week of January, there have been no investments, IPOs or acquisitions…
January 6, 2017 — Solera Holdings announced yesterday it has acquired the British-based Autodata from Bowmark Capital and Five Arrows Principal Investments for £340 million ($418 million). Autodata, which was founded in 1975, publishes technical service and repair information to the automotive aftermarket. It licenses data from 136 manufacturers covering 32,000 different models globally. Its owners, Bowmark… Continue Reading
January 2, 2017 — M&A activity among automotive retail vendors for the year ended quietly with only four deals completed in the fourth quarter. Nevertheless, the 31 acquisitions and investments in 2016 surpassed the 30 in 2015. The four deals in the fourth quarter include (more information about the following deals are included in the…
Except for a couple of investments from JMI Equity, M&A activity in the automotive retail vendor space has been silent in the fourth quarter. With three weeks left to go in the year, there have been 27 investments or acquisitions among vendors to date. (For more analysis on investment and acquisitions in the automotive retail…
October 25, 2016 – Automotive retail vendor merger and acquisition activity slowed slightly in the third quarter with only nine deals and investments announced bringing the total for the year to 25, according data compiled by The Banks Report. The third quarter review provides TBR’s outlook for the fourth quarter along with a recap of all…
October 16, 2016 — With eight acquisitions over the last 13 months along with one significant investment that closed in late September, Reynolds and Reynolds quietly has been one of the more active buyers among automotive retail vendors. On the surface, the strategy appears a bit disjointed and is even taking Reynolds outside the confines of the…
September 8, 2016 — CIP Capital, a New York-based private equity company new to the automotive retail space, is putting together a unique strategy acquiring four companies and combining them to create Affinitiv Inc. a new technology marketing firm. While other companies have executed roll up strategies in the past (Cox Automotive, DealerTrack, Dealersocket and HGGC are a few…
August 12, 2016 — Perhaps the most striking data point from CDK Global’s recent earnings filing is that it is gaining share of the overall North American dealer management system market while also growing the average amount from those contracts. CDK also announced strong results for its 2016 fiscal year along with an agreement with activist investor Elliott Partners to increase the… Continue Reading
August 11, 2016 — Following its June acquisition of the Australian-based Dealer Solutions, Cox Automotive will acquire News Corp’s 50% stake in CarsGuide, an online automotive classifieds site, also in Australia. Once the acquisition closes sometime in the fourth quarter, Cox will combine CarsGuide with Dealer Solutions and Manheim’s Australian division which includes its buying service SellMyCar into… Continue Reading
July 26, 2016 — Tegna announced this morning that its subsidiary Cars.com has acquired dealer review company DealerRater. The acquisition, which is scheduled to close in August, will give Cars.com four million consumer-submitted reviews. The company was founded in 2002 by Chip Grueter. In late 2013, private equity firm Great Hill Partners took a majority position in… Continue Reading