Financial Engineering Pays Dividends for Fidelity National’s Foley: $200 Million

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Last year’s separation of Fidelity National’s two man business lines paid off in a big way for its engineer, William Foley, who earned more than $200 million through the scheme. Foley, who serves as chairman of the board and CEO of Fidelity National Financial, which consists of the nation’s leading title insurer, earned $31.1 million in total compensation, including a $19 million bonus last year–as well as another $157 million from the accelerated vesting of options and stock due to the separation, according to the company’s annual proxy statement. In addition, Foley earned almost $20 million in compensation as a director, executive chairman and chairman of the executive committee for Fidelity National Information Systems, the back-office vendor that was spun-off from the title insurance business. Fidelity National built up its back-office business through a number of corporate acquisitions: including Certegy, Aurum Technology, ALLTEL Information Services, VISTA Information Solutions, Sanchez Computer Associates and InterCept, then spun it off last year into a publicly trade company. After the spin-off, Foley ended up with almost three million shares of Fidelity National Information Services valued at $150 million; and more than 1.2 million shares in Fidelity National Financial valued at more than $30 million.