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On March 19, 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) filed an administrative complaint to block CDK Global’s ( “CDK”) proposed acquisition of Auto/Mate.  The FTC alleged that the deal would violate Sections 5 of the FTC Act and 7 of the Clayton Act.  The parties to the deal abandoned the deal after being faced with a lawsuit.

Background

CDK and Auto/Mate supply dealer management systems (“DMS”) software to franchise new car dealerships. Car dealerships use DMS software, a mission-critical business software to manage nearly every aspect of their business including payroll, accounting, financing and inventory.  They track their services, prices, and other crucial functionalities.  The top two DMS software providers, CDK, which had 41% and Reynolds & Reynolds (“Reynolds”), which had 29%, combined for about a 70% share of the DMS software market. The big two are the highest priced, and have similar business models, which include long-term contracts and significant initial and monthly fees for third-party applications (app) vendors to integrate with their respective DMS. Dealertrack, Autosoft and Auto/Mate also had competitive DMS offerings as well as others. Auto/Mate was a very small competitor with only 6% of the market.  After the deal, CDK’s market share would have been 47%.

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