AUTOMOTIVE data supplier Glass's Information Services has been bought by an American-owned private investment firm for £126 million. Fleet NewsNet revealed that the Weybridge-based company, publisher of 'Glass's Guide to Car Values' was up for sale 10 weeks ago

This week Dallas-based Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Incorporated (Hicks Muse) announced it had bought the company and would retain the entire Glass's Information Services' management team. Following the announcement Glass's Information Services' managing director Robin Oliphant, who headed the £32.5 million management buyout of the company three years ago said it was 'business as usual'.

The company was put up for sale in a bid to attract new investment to fund 'a number of exciting projects'. Following the deal, completion of which is expected by the end of the month, Oliphant said: 'We are very excited about the strategic implications. 'Our new partnership with Hicks Muse will enable us to realise our growth ambitions both in the UK and overseas. Glass's has made excellent progress in recent years and is now poised for rapid expansion in the future.'

Commenting on national newspaper claims that some of the buyout team had become millionaires as a result of the Hicks Muse deal Oliphant said: 'A significant proportion of our investment has been rolled over into the new enterprise. So it is a paper profit.'