Origination technology developer Calyx Software acquired Loan-Score Decisioning Systems, Inc., a technology provider whose offerings include a product and pricing engine, an automated underwriting system and eligibility decisioning for Federal Housing Administration mortgages.
Calyx is based in San Jose, Calif. and has an additional office in Dallas. It will begin integrating Irvine, Calif.-based Loan-Score's operations immediately. Calyx’s acquisition includes Loan-Score’s assets and business and the company said it will be business as usual for Loan-Score customers, with contact numbers and personnel remaining unchanged.
Loan-Score has an automated underwriting system interface with the FHA’s Technology Open to Approved Lenders, or TOTAL, Scorecard loan approval platform. Lenders upload loan files to the Loan-Score website for underwriting review and approval by the TOTAL Scorecard technology. Other decisioning technology reviews mortgage portfolios for lenders of varying sizes and the company also has other Web portals for mortgage pricing and a database of investor guidelines.
Calyx’s flagship product is Point, a technology platform that’s evolved over the years to become an end-to-end loan origination system for mortgage brokers and lenders. Both Calyx and Loan-Score offer self-hosted and software-as-a-service versions of their technology.
In September, Calyx and Loan-Score launched integrations of the PPE and AUS with the Point platform, embedding the Loan-Score technology into the LOS with a drop-down menu. That initiative was the genesis of the discussions for Calyx to acquire Loan-Score.
The Loan-Score brand and operations will operate as a subsidiary of Calyx Technologies, as opposed to being folded into the LOS business. While Calyx now owns a PPE platform, its existing integrations with competing third-party providers, including Optimal Blue and LoanSifter, will remain in effect. A number of Loan-Score’s 36 customers are not Calyx users, and they will be able to continue their relationship with Loan-Sifter.
The deal was finalized on Monday. The 11 Loan-Score employees were technically laid off from Loan-Score on Wednesday and re-hired by Calyx on Thursday. Bill McCord, Loan-Score’s previous owner, will not be involved in the business moving forward.
Joe Bowerbank, Loan-Score’s senior vice president of marketing and strategic alliances, said the sale realizes the Loan-Score leadership’s desire to be acquired, a strategy that was developed about four years ago.
For Calyx, the move puts the company squarely in the budding mergers and acquisition activity ongoing in the mortgage space. Competitor Ellie Mae has acquired multiple technology vendors and the move helps Calyx continue to evolve its platform.
Market observers told Mortgage Technology the acquisition is a great buy for Calyx.
“Calyx has a substantive market share of the point of sale and LOS market for small to mid-size lenders and has been able to deliver a turnkey application to originators for years at a low cost,” said Jordan Brown, managing principal at mortgage technology consultancy MarketWise Advisors. “This bolsters Calyx existing product stack and extends the internal product offering. This is a pretty smart move for Calyx and a nice strategic fit.”
