There has been a wave of buyouts and tie-ups lately, and so it is time to reexamine the competitive landscape. We start by fleshing out the model I described in DR and Dealer Websites. This is a commerce-oriented model, placing software products along the customer journey.
Looking at the three big DMS vendors, we see Roadster and Gubagoo filling important gaps for CDK and Reynolds. Cox has long been in this space, now with Accelerate, and MMD before that. Cox is the only one of this group to own a listing platform, Autotrader.
Last year, CDK sold its dealer marketing operation to Ansira, including the dealer site business formerly known as Cobalt. The new entity, Sincro, now has a tie-up with Tekion. As far as I know, this is indeed the first real-time interface from website to DMS. I have worked with clients on other DMS interfaces, but none that cross the Buy Now boundary.
In the dealership, I list only the DMS, although the model could be extended to break out other point-of-sale systems. Note that CDK and Dealertrack no longer have their own menu systems. Both are now offering Darwin under license. To round out the DR theme, I include TrueCar’s tie up with AutoFi, and Fox Dealer’s acquisition of TagRail.
So far, so typical. Everybody wants a DR partner, and the big vendors have always acquired the innovative upstarts. But now, we discover a new theme. CDK paid a lot of money for Roadster, $360 million, to plug a gap in its product line. Why did J.D. Power, not a software vendor, pay even more for Darwin?
Digital Retail Acquisitions are Big Data Plays
J.D. Power is primarily a data business. They own ALG and Autodata. According to the press release, they are “focused on maximizing the value of our extensive data and analytics assets.” Darwin, through its powerful DMS interface, has been reading and analyzing sales data for thousands of dealers.
MotoInsight, the Canadian DR company (my profile here) was recently acquired by a unit of Thoma Bravo, which in turn owns J.D. Power. Seeing a pattern yet? The Autodata merger is pretty recent, and also mentions analytics.
“In working with Modal, we are leveraging aggregated purchase data and AI to improve conversion.”
Another DR player, Modal, recently teamed up with a data science company called Inmar. I couldn’t find the commercial terms, but founder Aaron Krane has stepped back. There’s a new CEO, and a plan to “catapult analytics to the forefront.”
The press release for the recent acquisition of Dealer Socket by Solera, “the preeminent global data intelligence and technology leader” specifically mentions machine learning. While we’re at it, let’s note that Automotive Mastermind is a unit of IHS Markit, as are Carfax and R.L Polk.
You’ve probably heard that “data is the new oil.” Opinions vary, but I think the metaphor holds up here. If you study analytics the way I do, it’s easy to see the data resources underlying these transactions. You can also check out this book, or the usual sources like HBR and Sloan.
Digital Retail is “the engine,” giving customers a self-sufficient buying experience. This engine is amenable to endless AI-based use cases, from recommenders to NLP chatbots … and AI runs on data.
Virag Consulting 