Company:Black Knight

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Black Knight, Inc.
FormerlyLender Processing Services, Black Knight Financial Services
TypeFinancial services
NYSEBKI
Russell 1000 Component
FoundedFlorida, USA
October 27th, 2014[1]
Headquarters601 Riverside Avenue, Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Key people
William P. Foley II, Executive Chairman
Anthony Jabbour, CEO
Anthony Orefice, EVP and COO
Kirk T Larsen, EVP and CFO
Shelley Leonard, EVP and CPO
Websitewww.blackknightinc.com

Black Knight, Inc., formerly known as Black Knight Financial Services, is an American corporation that provides integrated technology, services, data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries. On January 3, 2014, Fidelity National Financial acquired Lender Processing Services (LPS) and renamed it to Black Knight Financial Services. On October 2, 2017, upon the completion of a distribution by Fidelity National Financial of its equity interest in Black Knight Financial Services, Inc., the company rebranded as simply Black Knight (NYSEBKI).

History

LPS logo

The mortgage business segment of Fidelity National Information Services was spun off in 2008 to become a fully independent, publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol LPS[2][3] Jeffery Carbiener, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Fidelity National Information Services at the time of the divide, became the first President and Chief Executive Officer of LPS.

The 2010 robo-signing scandal exposed questionable behavior on the part of employees of a small subsidiary of the company. In addition to the federal government, states such as Nevada filed legal proceedings against these employees.[4] The investigation of these business practices were featured in an episode of 60 Minutes.[5] Eventually LPS settled with the federal government and other states and ceased operations of the problematic subsidiary.[6] Some controversy surrounded the resignation of two attorneys who had investigated LPS as part of their work for Florida's Economic Crime Division, as they claimed to have resigned under pressure from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had received campaign contributions from LPS.[7]

On March 14, 2011, the Company's subsidiary, LPS Mortgage Processing Solutions, Inc., acquired PCLender.com, Inc. (PCLender.com).[8] In May 2012, Constellation Software Inc. acquired the assets of the Local Government Solutions division of the Company.[9] In July 2012, the Company acquired LendingSpace, a provider of mortgage loan origination software.[10]

On October 5, 2011, LPS named Hugh Harris President and CEO. Prior to coming to LPS, Harris served as President of the Financial Services Technology division at Fidelity National Financial and Fidelity National Information Services. Before joining Fidelity National Financial, Harris was President and CEO of HomeSide Lending, Inc., where he was responsible for one of the world's largest full-service mortgage companies.[11]

On January 3, 2014 LPS was renamed Black Knight Financial Services after being acquired by Fidelity National Financial, which was ranked #314 among Fortune 500 Companies in 2015.[12] LPS product offerings support origination, servicing, portfolio retention and default servicing. Its offerings include LoanSphere MSP, a mortgage loan servicing platform, which is used to service approximately 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages by dollar volume.[13] The company also provides proprietary data and analytics for the mortgage, real estate and capital markets industries. LPS was a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, previously employing approximately 8,000 professionals.[14]

On October 2, 2017, upon the completion of a distribution by Fidelity National Financial of its equity interest in Black Knight Financial Services, Inc., the company rebranded as simply Black Knight[15] and began trading under the NYSE symbol BKI (NYSEBKI). In August 2018, Black Knight launched LoanSphere Actionable Intelligence Platform to provide lenders with actionable intelligence.[16][17]

On April 1, 2018, Anthony Jabbour was named CEO of Black Knight.[18] Jabbour had most recently been chief operating officer of Fidelity National Information Services’ banking and payments business.

On November 4, 2019, Black Knight took the unprecedented step of taking legal action against one of its clients, PennyMac Financial Services for breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets.[19] Within 24 hours, PennyMac had filed a retaliatory lawsuit against Black Knight for alleged anti-competitive practices.[20] The PennyMac case has since been moved from the California court in which the mortgage lender and servicer had filed suit and to Florida, where Black Knight had filed the original complaint. The case went to arbitration in June 2020.[21]

References

  1. "Archived copy". http://www.mmahotstuff.com/2017/01/06/newest-rating-sentiment-discussion-stirs-around-black-knight-financial-services-inc-nysebkfs-this-week-here-is-what-analysts-are-saying.html. 
  2. "Fidelity National Information Services' Spin off to be Named Lender Processing Services". Reuters. February 13, 2008. https://www.reuters.com/article/2008/02/13/idUS261591+13-Feb-2008+PRN20080213. 
  3. "Fidelity National Information Services' Spin off to be Named Lender Processing Services,...". Reuters. 2008-02-13. https://www.reuters.com/article/2008/02/13/idUS261591+13-Feb-2008+PRN20080213. Retrieved 2012-11-08. 
  4. "Nevada Sues Lender Processing Services Claiming Robo-Signing". 2011-12-09. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-12-16/nevada-sues-lender-processing-services-claiming-robo-signing-was-practice. 
  5. "Mortgage paperwork mess: Next housing shock?". 2011-04-23. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mortgage-paperwork-mess-next-housing-shock/. 
  6. "Update 2-LPS settles U.S. foreclosure fraud criminal probe". 2013-02-15. https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-crime-lenderprocessing-settlement/update-2-lps-settles-u-s-foreclosure-fraud-criminal-probe-idUSL1N0BFE4J20130216. 
  7. "Political notebook: Pam Bondi under fire after LPS-related resignations". https://www.jacksonville.com/article/20110729/NEWS/801247085. 
  8. "LPS acquires PCLender to expand reach to small mortgage lenders". housingwire.com. http://www.housingwire.com/news/2011/03/18/lps-acquires-pclender-expand-reach-small-mortgage-lenders. 
  9. "Constellation Software Inc. Acquires Certain Assets of Lender Processing Services LLC". Yahoo Finance. 4 May 2012. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/constellation-software-inc-acquires-certain-142931807.html. 
  10. http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112649955/lps_announces_acquisition_of_lendingspace
  11. "Archived copy". http://www.lpsvcs.com/LPSCorporateInformation/NewsRoom/Pages/20111005.aspx. 
  12. "Latest News Headlines - NASDAQ.com". NASDAQ.com. http://www.nasdaq.com/article/fidelity-national-announces-formation-of-black-knight-financial-services-20140103-00423. 
  13. "distressedassetdirectory.com". http://www.distressedassetdirectory.com/directory-listing/lender-processing-services-5. 
  14. "Fortune 500 2012: Fortune 1000 Companies 1-100". CNN. https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/full_list/. 
  15. "Black Knight Financial Service Rebrands as Black Knight". https://www.housingwire.com/articles/41270-black-knight-financial-services-rebrands-as-black-knight. 
  16. "Black Knight launches new intelligence platform" (in en). https://www.housingwire.com/articles/46477-black-knight-launches-new-intelligence-platform. 
  17. "Black Knight Launches LoanSphere Actionable Intelligence Platform - MortgageOrb" (in en-US). MortgageOrb. 2018-08-15. https://mortgageorb.com/black-knight-launches-loansphere-actionable-intelligence-platform. 
  18. "Black Knight names Anthony Jabbour CEO". https://www.housingwire.com/articles/42481-black-knight-names-anthony-jabbour-ceo/. 
  19. "Black Knight CEO Addresses Lawsuit with Former Customer PennyMac" (in en). https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2019/11/07/black-knight-ceo-addresses-lawsuit-with-former.html. 
  20. "PennyMac Financial Services Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Black Knight for Anticompetitive Behavior" (in en). https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2019-11-06/pennymac-financial-services-files-antitrust-lawsuit-against-black-knight-for-anticompetitive-behavior. 
  21. Robinson, Will (June 26, 2020). "After a few rounds of legal battles, Black Knight's $340 million suit against PennyMac goes into arbitration". https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2020/06/26/black-knight-pennymac-lawsuits-arbitration.html. 

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