Vista Equity Partners combines Solera with two other North Texas-based auto software companies - The Dallas Morning News

Austin-based investment firm Vista Equity Partners is combining three of its auto technology companies in a move that could signal it’s prepping for a public offering.

Westlake-based Solera Holdings Inc., which develops risk management software for the auto and home insurance industry, is acquiring auto software companies DealerSocket and Omnitracs. The acquisitions are expected to close in the second quarter.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Irving-based DealerSocket, founded in 2001, has over 9,000 automotive dealerships using its platform for customer relationship management, digital retailing and marketing, inventory management and analytics. Dallas-based Omnitracs has nearly 15,000 customers in the trucking industry that use its software for compliance, workflow, routing and video safety.

Joining DealerSocket with Solera will make a powerful one-stop-shop product to market to dealerships, DealerSocket CEO Sejal Pietrzak said in a statement.

“The combination ... allows us to offer dealerships a fully unified platform to simplify workflows and enables us to become the digital backbone across all areas of a connected dealership, simplifying and improving the retail experience,” she said.

In March, Vista Equity Partners, founded in 2000 by billionaire Robert Smith, was reportedly talking with blank-check firm Apollo Strategic Growth Capital about adding the two auto software companies to Solera before taking it public, Bloomberg reported. The deal was valued at $15 billion.

But Vista decided to go at it alone.

Solera declined to comment beyond the announcement. Omnitracs, DealerSocket and Apollo did not immediately return a request for comment.

Vista took Solera, which has operations in more than 90 countries, private in 2016 at a valuation of more than $6.5 billion. It acquired Omnitracs from Qualcomm for $800 million in 2013 and invested in DealerSocket in 2014.

Vista has more than $75 billion in assets under its management. It focuses on middle-market and large-cap enterprise software, data and technology-enabled companies, according to its website. Its currently working with 70 companies.

Since 2000, it’s grown from four employees to more than 450 employees.

In its 2020 annual report to investors, Vista said software company investments proved to be a good strategy since the COVID-19 pandemic forced companies to accelerate their technology adoption. The software market is projected to grow 22% by 2024, making it the fastest-growing sector in the economy, the firm cited in its report.

Law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP is advising Solera on the acquisition. Greenberg Traurig LLP is serving as legal counsel to Omnitracs, while Ropes & Gray LLP is doing the same for DealerSocket.

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