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Reuters: Solera not satisfied with offers yet; Thoma Bravo, IHS among possible suitors

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Business Practices | Market Trends | Technology
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AudaExplore and Audatex parent company Solera hasn’t received a sweet enough offer yet from Thoma Bravo or Vista Equity to sell, Reuters reported Friday.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg Business — using unnamed sources, as Reuters did — reported that the company looked as though it would sell to $53 a share, or $3.6 billion, to one of the two companies or a third unspecified bidder.

Solera in late August estimated its market capitalization at about $3.255 billion.

But Reuters reported Friday that Solera was looking at other companies rather than a conglomerate like Thoma Bravo or Vista Equity. (Both are private equity firms; find out more about them here.) Thoma Bravo, however, was trying to line up a larger loan, Reuters reported.

Solera now has asked IHS if it’s interested, according to Reuters, which indicated that Solera had asked other companies too but didn’t provide any other names. IHS declined to comment to the wire service.

IHS performs a lot of analyses in both the insurance and automotive industries (check out the IHS Automotive blog here and the graphic below), but it does offer some software as well. It certainly sounds as though Solera would be a good fit.

IHS-Where-is-the-Car-Heading-Infographic-8013_220491110915583632

It would certainly be great from a transparency perspective if the company were sold to IHS; it’s publicly traded too. Its market cap is $8 billion.

Reuters indicates Solera is OK with a leveraged buyout, which according to Investopedia involves using a lot of debt — sometimes using the assets of the target company as collateral — to make the purchase, according to Investopedia. LBOs are typically hostile, but based on Reuters’ report, that doesn’t seem to be an issue here.

More information:

“Solera leveraged buyout talks stall over price: sources”

Reuters, Sept. 11, 2015

Images:

The Solera logo. (Provided by Solera via PRNewsFoto)

An analysis by IHS is shown here. (Provided by IHS)

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