Fidelity’s Foley: The Man With TheGolden Touch

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - (05/01/06) – The markets were cheering lastweek when Fidelity National Financial announced yet anotherfinancial re-engineering–but no one more loudly than WilliamFoley, chief financial engineer of the title company-turnedfinancial services conglomerate. News of the company’s latestrestructuring pushed up shares in Fidelity National Financial by24% on Thursday to $43.50, earning Foley almost $22 million on his2.7 million FNF shares. But Foley, the man who earned almost $80million by engineering a special $10-a-share dividend in December2004, stands to reap an even bigger windfall after he completes thedecoupling of Fidelity National Title and Fidelity NationalInformation from the Fidelity National Financial holding company.That’s because as part of last year’s spin-off of thetwo companies Foley received 320,000 options in FNF, now valued at$8 million, 3.2 million options in FIS, now valued at more than $7million, and 120,000 restricted shares of Fidelity National Titlenow valued at $3 million, according to documents filed with theSecurities and Exchange Commission. At Friday’s closing,Foley’s stake in Fidelity National Financial was valued atalmost $120 million and his stake in Fidelity National Title atalmost $14 million. The latest restructuring will leave twocompanies standing: Fidelity National Title, the nation’slargest title insurer; and Fidelity National Information Services,a conglomeration of cards processor Certegy Inc., as well as theremnants of Aurum Technology, ALLTEL Information Services, VISTAInformation Solutions, Sanchez Computer Associates and InterCept,all acquired by Fidelity National over the past threeyears.