This comment was email to UKAT

"Solera have, over the Christmas period, purchased Autodata from private equity ownership. This means that Solera will now own Autodata and E3 within the UK market place. Both Autodata and E3 provide vehicle repair data predominantly to non-franchised aftermarket workshops. E3 is a product supplied to the market by CarweB Ltd, who are now owned by Solera. E3 uses data supplied by Haynespro and competes head to head with Autodata. Since CarweB launched E3 it is estimated to have taken approximately 20%-25% of the UK market place. The combination of Autodata and E3 mean that Solera may well have virtually 100% of the UK market place and could have created a monopoly. Haynespro do supply direct into the UK but have little presence at the moment as they have partnered CarweB until now. It will take time for Haynespro to UK’ise their data and during that time E3 could well migrate to Autodata as its core data supply.
Should the CMA be asked to look at this monopoly?
Should Solera sell off E3 to maintain a competitive UK marketplace?
Bowmark paid £150m to purchase Autodata and it is believed that Solera have paid a significant markup over that price, which would be an extremely high multiple on valuation. Prices can surely only go up to get a return on the investment?"