Omnitracs Parent Solera Set to Acquire Trailer-Tracking Firm Spireon
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Solera Holdings, the parent company of Omnitracs, has agreed to acquire asset-tracking firm Spireon Inc. in the latest example of consolidation in the trucking industry’s technology market.
Solera is set to acquire Spireon from a fund managed by private equity firm Greenbriar Equity Group, but the companies did not disclose the terms of the deal. The acquisition is expected to close during the first quarter.
Spireon, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., provides the FleetLocate brand of trailer and asset-monitoring technology and serves more than 13,000 customers with nearly 4 million connected devices.
Westlake, Texas-based Solera, a portfolio company of Vista Equity Partners, said the addition of Spireon to its holdings will strengthen its position as a global provider of integrated vehicle life cycle and fleet-management software, data and services.
“This acquisition is strategically aligned with our existing fleet and dealership growth strategies and will expand our customer base,” Solera CEO Darko Dejanovic said in the Feb. 1 announcement. “It increases our total addressable market and adds significant opportunities for cross-selling and solution integration that benefit customers.”
The announcement comes less than eight months after Solera completed its acquisition of Omnitracs, another Vista-owned company, in June 2021. Solera also acquired two other technology firms at that time — DealerSocket, a developer of software for automotive dealerships, and eDriving, a digital driver risk management firm.
In particular, the additions of Omnitracs and Spireon solidify Solera’s position as a major player in the trucking technology sector. Omnitracs has long been one of the industry’s largest suppliers of in-cab communications, electronic logging devices and fleet-management software, while Spireon is a major provider of data-rich trailer monitoring technology.
“I am extremely excited about the acquisition by Solera and the opportunities it will bring our customers and employees,” Spireon CEO Kevin Weiss said in the announcement. “Solera’s position as a growing, global leader can bring new avenues to expand Spireon’s [internet of things] platform and solutions to address new customer challenges as well as global markets.”
Spireon had about 350,000 trailer and asset-tracking units in service in the United States last year, according to the latest market study on mobile resource management systems by C.J. Driscoll & Associates.
The research and consulting firm’s founder, Clem Driscoll, noted that Omnitracs had backed away from the trailer tracking market to some degree, so the addition of Spireon will make Solera a major supplier of connected trailer technology.
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Prior to its merger with Solera, Omnitracs had completed several major deals of its own following its spinoff from wireless technology giant Qualcomm in 2013. Omnitracs’ acquisitions during the past decade include routing software firm Roadnet Technologies, telematics vendor XRS Corp. and SmartDrive Systems, a provider of video-based safety technology.
Other major technology companies also have been expanding their capabilities in the freight transportation industry through high-profile acquisitions.
Trimble, for example, has built a broad portfolio of in-cab and back-office technologies through its acquisitions of PeopleNet, TMW Systems, ALK Technologies, 10-4 Systems, Kuebix and others.
Moving forward, Driscoll expects the consolidation trend to continue with more mergers and acquisitions in the fleet telematics space.
“There will be more, no question,” he said. “Commercial telematics continues to grow, it continues to be attractive, and it continues to have the [software-as-a-service] model, which is very prevalent. Investors like that and strategic buyers do as well.”
