ATLANTA–Intercontinental Exchange Inc. is buying Ellie Mae, a provider of cloud-based services for mortgage lenders, for $11 billion.
Pleasanton, Calif.-based Ellie Mae has approximately 1,700 employees, and operates a digital lending platform with which many credit unions are familiar to automate the full mortgage origination workflow.
It's expected to generate revenues of $900 million this year, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
Intercontinental Exchange operates numerous marketplaces for energy and agricultural commodities, metals, interest rates, equities, exchange traded funds, or ETFs, credit derivatives, digital assets, bonds and currencies, and also offers mortgage and technology services, the report noted.
ICE already operates MERS, a national electronic database that tracks changes in mortgage servicing and beneficial ownership interests in U.S. residential loans, and Simplifile, which serves as an electronic liaison between lenders, settlement agents and county recording offices, streamlining the local recording of residential mortgage transactions in the United States, the Atlanta Business Chronicle added.
The deal will make ICE "the leading provider of end-to-end electronic workflow services for the U.S. residential mortgage industry," the company said.
‘Unique Digital Ecosystem’
The "combination of complementary assets creates a unique digital ecosystem connecting the key stakeholders across the mortgage origination value chain" and "accelerates opportunity to digitize the cloud-based closing process," ICE said in a statement, adding the deal will give it a total of about $1.1 billion in pro-forma ICE Mortgage Services revenues.
“Twenty years after we founded Intercontinental Exchange to provide a transparent trading platform for the energy industry, and following two decades of providing continued innovation to help customers navigate global markets, we are pleased to announce the acquisition of Ellie Mae, which will help us similarly transform the mortgage marketplace,” said Jeffrey C. Sprecher, founder, chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, in a statement. “Our planned acquisition represents a one-of-a-kind opportunity to add an extraordinary enterprise with great leadership to our family. It will also enhance ICE’s growth strategy in mortgage technology, with complementary products and a wide array of customers and stakeholders who will benefit from our core and proven expertise in operating networks and marketplaces.”