CoreLogic to be Acquired for $6B

Stone Point Capital and Insight Partners will acquire global property information, data and analytics firm CoreLogic for about $6 billion, signaling an end to a competitive sale process initiated last summer by activist investors from Cannae Holdings and Senator Investment Group.

CoreLogic announced today that its Board of Directors had unanimously approved a definitive merger agreement with the two firms in which they acquire all of its outstanding shares for $80 per share in cash.  That accounts for an equity value of approximately $6 billion. In a statement, the firms said that value represents a 51% premium to CoreLogic’s unaffected share price in June.

The Wall Street Journal had previously reported that a deal was nearing, but noted that the outcome is surprising given that much attention had focused on other firms, including CoreLogic’s main competitor CoStar Group and private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC.  The fight over CoreLogic’s future began in June, when Cannae and Senator offered $7 billion for the company, including debt. Bloomberg previously reported that CoreLogic’s board rejected the proposal, as well as a second offer at $66 a share, saying that it undervalued the company. 

“This is a significant milestone for CoreLogic and a very positive outcome for our shareholders who will receive exceptional value for their shares in cash with a high degree of regulatory certainty and a closing expected in the near term,” CoreLogic Chairman Paul Folino said in a statement.  “The transaction is the culmination of our Board’s extensive review of strategic alternatives, which included engaging with numerous potential buyers.”

Financing for the deal will come in the form of both committed equity financing provided by funds managed by Stone Point Capital and Insight Partners and committed debt financing provided by J.P. Morgan Securities LLC. The firms expect the deal to close in the second quarter of 2021,  subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

The acquisition comes on the heels of another CRE data provider acquisition in December, when private equity firm Thoma Bravo announced it would acquire RealPage in a $10.2 billion, all cash deal.  It signals further consolidation in the CRE service sector, a trend that’s expected to continue in 2021. In December, Joseph Ori,executive managing director of Paramount Capital Corp., predicted that the industry will see more consolidation as the larger and well-capitalized firms gobble up their smaller competitors.

“The same consolidation will occur with the data analytics firms and look for the large software firms to be key buyers of the larger data analytic firms,” he wrote weeks before the RealPage deal was announced.