LAS VEGAS: Black Knight Inc. has completed its acquisition of Optimal Blue, a leading provider of secondary market solutions and actionable data services.
“Bringing Optimal Blue into the Black Knight family enhances our robust set of solutions with the addition of industry-leading product, pricing and eligibility capabilities and increases our already comprehensive data and analytics offerings,” said Black Knight CEO Anthony Jabbour.
“Our similar business models, which include both subscription-based recurring revenues and significant operating leverage, will be accretive to our key financial metrics and deliver significant shareholder value. The combined strengths of Black Knight and Optimal Blue will also give clients a wider selection of offerings from a single provider that will provide innovation to help transform the industries we serve and will significantly expand Black Knight’s ability to greatly advance our clients’ objectives, competitiveness and profitability.”
In connection with the acquisition, Black Knight will combine its Compass Analytics business with Optimal Blue in a newly formed entity with minority co-investors Cannae and Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. (THL).
Cannae and THL will each have a 20% ownership interest in the new entity. Black Knight will own 60% of the new entity. Optimal Blue was purchased for an enterprise value of $1.8 billion funded with cash on hand, debt financing and investments from Cannae and THL.
Trasimene Capital Management acted as the financial advisor to Black Knight.
Cannae Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNNE) is a holding company engaged in actively managing and operating a group of companies and investments, as well as making additional majority and minority equity portfolio investments in businesses, in order to achieve superior financial performance and maximize the value of these assets. Cannae was founded and is led by investor William P. Foley, II. Mr. Foley is responsible for the creation and growth of over $100 Billion in publicly traded companies including Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), Fidelity National Financial (FNF) and Black Knight, Inc. (BKI).
Cannae’s current principal holdings include Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB), which recently completed a successful business transformation and IPO. Cannae holds an approximately 18% interest in Dun & Bradstreet or 76 million shares. Cannae’s second principal holding is Ceridian (CDAY), which Mr. Foley transformed from a legacy payroll bureau into a leading cloud based provider of human capital management software. Cannae owns 11% of Ceridian representing approximately 16.1 million shares. Cannae’s third largest holding is approximately 6 million shares and equivalents in CoreLogic (CLGX).
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