April 27, 2015 — So far this year, there have been eight acquisitions in the automotive retail vendor space, the latest deal being completed today by Reynolds and Reynolds. Today’s deal comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that Solera Holdings had acquired DME Automotive. Meanwhile, we know of at least another three deals that are close and could be announced within the next few weeks.

The Banks Report has learned that Reynolds and Reynolds today acquired On Line Drive, a company created by Larry Bruce. It’s the third company of Bruce’s that Reynolds has acquired from Bruce over the last seven years — AIM Data and ClickBuyDrive being the other two.

Terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed but we estimate the deal to be somewhere north of $15 million. On Line Drive likely will be added to Naked Lime’s suite of solutions. The acquisition is in keeping with Reynold’s startegy of looking for tuck in deals that help strengthen current solutions. Bruce, meanwhile, is expected to rejoin Reynold’s executive team.

Today’s deal follows Solera Holdings acquisition last week of DME Automotive. Solera has made at least four acquisitions in the service, maintenance and repair space over the last year and half — DME, Identifix, AutoPoint and Service Dynamics.

There likely will be another three or four deals announced within the next few weeks. In 2014, the pace of acquisitions/investments was slightly slower — 19 deals were completed the entire year with approximately $30 billion in equity changing hands — much bigger than the eight completed so far this year, which have totaled between an estimated $500 to $600 million.

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