No one can predict the future of real estate, but you can prepare. Find out what to prepare for and pick up the tools you’ll need at the immersive Virtual Inman Connect on Nov. 1-2, 2023. And don’t miss Inman Connect New York on Jan. 23-25, 2024, where AI, capital and more will be center stage. Bet big on the roaring future, and join us at Connect.
With its merger with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) on track to be green-lighted by antitrust regulators, Black Knight says it plans to complete the sale of its Empower and Optimal Blue businesses to subsidiaries of Canadian-based software giant Constellation Software next month.
Black Knight first proposed selling its Empower origination system [LOS] to Constellation in March in order to clear the way for what was envisioned at the time as a $13.1 billion merger with ICE when originally proposed last year. ICE already offers its own popular mortgage loan origination system, Encompass, thanks to its $11.4 billion acquisition of Ellie Mae in 2020.
Although terms of the Empower sale weren’t disclosed, ICE and Black Knight said an amended merger agreement valued Black Knight at $75 per share or $11.7 billion — about $1.4 billion less than when the deal was announced in 2022. The agreement to sell Empower also includes Black Knight’s Exchange, LendingSpace and AIVA solutions.
But simply spinning off Empower wasn’t enough to satisfy antitrust regulators at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) who said Empower clients would still rely on ancillary services provided by Black Knight and Optimal Blue. So in July, ICE and Black Knight said they were also willing to sell Optimal Blue to Constellation — but only if the FTC would allow the merger to proceed.
Citing “significant progress” in negotiations, attorneys with the FTC, Black Knight and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) on Aug. 7 asked a federal judge to temporarily dismiss a lawsuit the FTC filed in April seeking to stay the merger.