Black Knight, Inc., formerly known as Black Knight Financial Services, is an American corporation that provides integrated technology, services, data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries. On January 3, 2014, Fidelity National Financial acquired Lender Processing Services and renamed it to Black Knight Financial Services. On October 2, 2017, upon the completion of a distribution by Fidelity National Financial of its equity interest in Black Knight Financial Services, Inc., the company rebranded as simply Black Knight. The company is well-respected in the real estate and mortgage industries as a provider of innovative technology and data-driven solutions across the home ownership life cycle. It is frequently cited in the U.S. media as an expert source on the housing and mortgage markets. Under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Anthony Jabbour, the company has embarked on a quest to "transform the mortgage industry through innovation." In February, 2020, Black Knight earned a 100% score in the Human Rights Campaign FoundationCorporate Equality Index, the nation's premier benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ workplace equality.
History
The mortgage business segment of Fidelity National Information Services was spun off in 2008 to become a fully independent, publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol LPS Jeffery Carbiener, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Fidelity National Information Services at the time of the divide, became the first President and Chief Executive Officer of LPS. The 2010 robo-signing scandal exposed questionable behavior on the part of employees of a small subsidiary of the company. In addition to the federal government, states such as Nevada filed legal proceedings against these employees. The investigation of these business practices were featured in an episode of 60 Minutes. Eventually LPS settled with the federal government and other states and ceased operations of the problematic subsidiary. Some controversy surrounded the resignation of two attorneys who had investigated LPS as part of their work for Florida's Economic Crime Division, as they claimed to have resigned under pressure from Attorney GeneralPam Bondi, who had received campaign contributions from LPS. On March 14, 2011, the Company's subsidiary, LPS Mortgage Processing Solutions, Inc., acquired PCLender.com, Inc.. In May 2012, Constellation Software Inc. acquired the assets of the Local Government Solutions division of the Company. In July 2012, the Company acquired LendingSpace, a provider of mortgage loan origination software. On October 5, 2011, LPS named Hugh Harris President and CEO. Prior to coming to LPS, Harris served as President of the Financial Services Technology division at Fidelity National Financial and Fidelity National Information Services. Before joining Fidelity National Financial, Harris was President and CEO of HomeSide Lending, Inc., where he was responsible for one of the world's largest full-service mortgage companies. On January 3, 2014 LPS was renamed Black Knight Financial Services after being acquired by Fidelity National Financial, which was ranked #314 among Fortune 500 Companies in 2015. LPS product offerings support origination, servicing, portfolio retention and default servicing. Its offerings include LoanSphere MSP, a mortgage loan servicing platform, which is used to service approximately 50 percent of all U.S. mortgages by dollar volume. The company also provides proprietary data and analytics for the mortgage, real estate and capital markets industries. LPS was a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, previously employing approximately 8,000 professionals. On October 2, 2017, upon the completion of a distribution by Fidelity National Financial of its equity interest in Black Knight Financial Services, Inc., the company rebranded as simply Black Knight and began trading under the NYSE symbol BKI. In August 2018, Black Knight launched LoanSphere Actionable Intelligence Platform to provide lenders with actionable intelligence. On April 1, 2018, Anthony Jabbour was named CEO of Black Knight. Jabbour had most recently been chief operating officer of Fidelity National Information Services’ banking and payments business. In this role, Jabbour had global accountability for solution development, sales and delivery of banking and payments offerings for clients of all sizes and in all geographic markets. In the years since Jabbour took the helm of the company, Black Knight has won multiple patents for its technological innovations, industry awards for its solutions for the real estate and mortgage industries, and for being an exemplary workplace. On November 04, 2019, Black Knight took the unprecedented step of taking legal action against one if its clients, PennyMac Financial Services for breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. Within 24 hours, PennyMac had filed a retaliatory lawsuit against Black Knight for alleged anti-competitive practices. The PennyMac case has since been moved from the California court in which the mortgage lender and servicer had filed suit and to FLorida, where Black Knight had filed the original complaint.
