Leading off our top stories this week is the news that private equity firm Apax Partners plans to acquire Activant as part of a $2 billion deal. Apax, which tends to buy businesses valued at anywhere from $1.5 billion to $7 billion, also plans to acquire Epicor Software Corp. and merge the two companies to create one of the largest global providers of enterprise applications focused on the manufacturing, distribution, services and retail sectors. Activant is currently owned by investment funds affiliated with Hellman & Friedman LLC, Thoma Bravo, LLC and JMI Equity, and by management. Following the proposed merger, the companies will do business as Epicor Software Corp.
Special to aftermarketNews this week, four participants in this year’s University of the Aftermarket Leadership 2.0 program gave us a rare glimpse inside a week on campus. The four participants blogged about their experiences in this intensive executive education program.
In today’s Leadership 2.0 blog, Matt Taylor of Remy Power Products announced the big winner in the contest for best presentation of team research projects.
On Thursday, Qualis Automotive’s Dan Bouchey blogged about the camaraderie that builds during experiences such as these.
In Wednesday’s blog, Lisa McGunagle of Federal-Mogul explored the aftermarket’s value proposition and its place in the global economy.
And on Tuesday, Glenn Schaefer of CARQUEST Canada kicked things off with some great insights on leadership from the day’s presenters.
Also in top news this week, Honeywell has announced that its new low-global-warming refrigerant has been approved by the EPA for use in automobile air conditioning systems. The approval allows the refrigerant, HFO-1234yf, to be used in new cars in the U.S. According to Honeywell, HFO-1234yf has a global-warming-potential (GWP) that is 99.7 percent less than HFC-134a, the refrigerant currently used in most car air conditioning systems. The EPA granted the approval under its Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program.
In other positive environmental news from U.S. specialty chemical makers, Vavoline this week introduced its new NextGen motor oil, which is made from 50 percent recycled oil. According to the company, although it’s 50 percent recycled, the oil still exceeds industry specifications with reduced environmental impact compared to non-recycled motor oil. U.S. cars and trucks use more than 3 billion quarts of motor oil each year, and Valvoline said if every American switched to NextGen recycled motor oil, it would save 400 million gallons of crude oil.
Last in our recap of the week’s top news comes word of a new government sales department for LKQ Corp. LKQ said it created the new department to provide its products to state, local and federal government entities at competitive prices. The new program will enable government entities to save up to 40 percent or more on vehicle repair parts including wheels, lighting, sheet metal, bumpers, remanufactured engines and transmissions, paint and body supplies and other associated components. In creating the new department, LKQ Corp. met with various government entities including city and county garages, state representatives, members of congress and governmental procurement decision makers, most of whom were unaware of LKQ’s competitive parts offerings, the company said.
