The potential $8 billion cost for the well-known industry research company shows how valuable detailed business information is becoming in the car industry and on Wall Street.
The private company that owns J.D. Power, is considering selling the company, as reported by Bloomberg. However, it's still early, and there's no guarantee they'll go through with it.
There have been other major deals recently involving data. For instance, Francisco Partners bought Sumo Logic Inc., a data analytics company, for $1.7 billion, and Blackstone purchased QTS Realty Trust, a data solutions company, for $10 billion.
J.D. Power releases numerous automotive studies each year, funded independently, which are highly respected by car manufacturers for understanding consumer behavior.
These studies, including the annual dependability survey, initial quality study, and automotive performance execution and layout study, ask customers about their satisfaction. Automakers then buy these studies to help them make products that better suit their target customers.
As the auto industry moves towards electric vehicles, J.D. Power has introduced studies like the electric vehicle experience survey and the EV consideration study to measure consumer interest in EVs.
This marks a change for the company, which began as a car research firm in 1968 but has since expanded to cover industries such as healthcare, insurance, finance, and home retail, though car industry studies are still its primary focus.