JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Lender Processing Services, the nation’s largest provider of mortgage processing services, on Monday said the “go-shop” period under a takeover offer from Fidelity National Financial had expired and the company did not receive any alternative acquisition proposals during the 30-day window.
During the shopping period, Lender Processing said it engaged in an active and extensive solicitation of 42 potentially interested parties, which resulted in three parties negotiating and entering into confidentiality agreements with LPS. As a result, the board of directors continues to recommend that stockholders adopt the merger agreement with Fidelity National Financial.
Fidelity National Financial has agreed to pay about $2.9 billion in cash and stock as it tries to grow its mortgage servicing business. Closing of the transaction currently is expected to occur in the fourth quarter.
In 2009, Lender Processing was spun off from Fidelity National Information Services, which itself was spun off two years before from Fidelity National Financial, the giant title insurance company. The three separate publicly owned companies currently are run out of the same offices in Jacksonville.
Fidelity National Information Services, now known as FIS, was formed in 2006 in a merger between an FNF unit and credit union card service company Certegy Inc.
FNF now owns a number of restaurant chains, an automotive business and a payment solutions business, apart from its core insurance businesses. The company said it plans to merge its ServiceLink business with LPS, and sell a 19% stake in the combined company to private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners for about $381 million.
