Pending Acquisition

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2023

Business Combination and Asset Acquisition [Abstract]

Pending Acquisition

Pending Acquisition

Pending Acquisition of Black Knight, Inc.

On May 4, 2022, we announced that we had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Black Knight, Inc., or Black Knight, a software, data and analytics company that serves the housing finance continuum, including real estate data, mortgage lending and servicing, as well as the secondary markets. Pursuant to that certain Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of May 4, 2022, among ICE, Sand Merger Sub Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of ICE, or Sub, and Black Knight, which we refer to as the “merger agreement,” Sub will merge with and into Black Knight, which we refer to as the “merger,” with Black Knight surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary of ICE.

On March 7, 2023, ICE and Black Knight announced that, in connection with the merger agreement, Black Knight has entered into an agreement to sell its Empower loan origination business. On March 7, 2023, ICE and Black Knight also entered into an amendment to the merger agreement to reduce the value of the aggregate transaction consideration to approximately $11.7 billion as of March 7, 2023, or $75 per share of Black Knight common stock, with cash comprising 90% of the value of the aggregate transaction consideration and shares of our common stock comprising 10% of the value of the aggregate transaction consideration. The aggregate cash component of the transaction consideration is fixed at $10.5 billion, and the value of the aggregate stock component of the transaction consideration will fluctuate with the market price of our common stock and will be determined based on the average of the volume weighted averages of the trading prices of our common stock on each of the ten consecutive trading days ending three trading days prior to the closing of the merger. If consummated, we expect that this transaction will build on our position as a provider of end-to-end electronic workflow solutions for the rapidly evolving U.S. residential mortgage industry. We believe the Black Knight ecosystem adds value for clients of all sizes across the mortgage and real estate lifecycles by helping organizations lower costs, increase efficiencies, grow their businesses, and reduce risk.

On March 30, 2023, our amended proxy statement/prospectus on Form S-4 was declared effective by the SEC, and on April 28, 2023, Black Knight stockholders approved the amendment to the merger agreement.

On July 17, 2023, we announced that we have agreed to sell Black Knight’s Optimal Blue business to the same purchaser as that of the Empower business for $700 million. The structure of this proposed transaction includes a payment of $200 million in cash, with the remainder financed by a $500 million promissory note issued by the purchaser to Black Knight, as a subsidiary of ICE, at the closing of the transaction. The closing of the proposed Optimal Blue divestiture transaction is subject to the closing of our acquisition of Black Knight, the closing of the acquisition of Black Knight’s Empower loan origination system business, and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2023 following the receipt of regulatory approvals, a favorable resolution of the FTC litigation concerning this transaction, and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. See Note 13 where additional details of this transaction are discussed.