Behind a hostile bid for CoreLogic lies a tale of two rivals

Companies that collectively own roughly 15% of CoreLogic are trying to stage a hostile takeover of the company, and there is some interesting history to that.

One of the hostile bidders, Cannae Holdings, is a spinout of Fidelity National Financial. CoreLogic is a spinoff of Fidelity's competitor in the title insurance business, First American.

Cannae Holdings Chairman William Foley, who is also executive chairman of Black Knight and vice chairman of Fidelity National Information Services, has appeared to be actively raising capital in preparation for a deal.

Earlier this month, Cannae raised over $412 million in a public offering. That followed a late May transaction where another Foley-controlled entity, Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp., did a $900 million IPO; Cannae is an investor in Foley Trasimene.

(A recent Black Knight common stock offering was billed as a means of paying down debt, but there was speculation that it could be a way to raise funding for future acquisitions.)

Foley also is FNF's nonexecutive chairman.

Cannae and Senator Investment Group are offering to pay $65 per share in cash for CoreLogic, a total estimated enterprise value of $7 billion. They plan to finance the transaction using a $3.6 billion in equity already spoken for and third-party debt.

CoreLogic confirmed receipt of the offer and advised its shareholders to take no action on it pending a board review.

"CoreLogic's board of directors, consistent with its fiduciary responsibilities, will carefully review the proposal with the assistance of financial and legal advisors to determine the course of action it believes is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders," the company said in a press release.

Cannae and Senator had not previously expressed any interest in acquiring remaining shares in the company, according to CoreLogic.

Brad Finkelstein contributed to this story.