Intercontinental Exchange Completes Its Acquisition of Black Knight

Nearly a year and a half after the initial announcement, wide-moat-rated Intercontinental Exchange has completed its acquisition of Black Knight, a firm that offers data and software services for the real estate and mortgage industries. In general, we like the underlying strategy of the deal as Black Knight’s data assets will help drive Intercontinental’s broader vision of a fully electronic mortgage lending process and a more efficient mortgage bond market, while Intercontinental's mortgage technology business will benefit from reduced cyclicality as Black Knight’s dominant mortgage servicing software business will add reliable recurring revenue. That said, we believe the attractiveness of the deal has been negatively impacted by the steps Intercontinental had to take to get the deal approved by the Federal Trade Commission.