SkySlope allows FNF to offer more services to real estate brokers

Title insurance underwriter FNF Group broadened its offerings to real estate brokers through the purchase of a majority interest in SkySlope, which operates a digital transaction management platform.

The price was not disclosed. FNF Group is a publicly traded unit of Fidelity National Financial Inc.

SkySlope is used by over 1,500 real estate brokerages. Among its services are compliance reviews and providing a way for agents to get digital signatures for contracts and disclosures.

"SkySlope will broaden FNF's service offerings to real estate professionals and further advance our strategy of providing a suite of best of breed technology assets to help real estate agents and brokers gain more customers and more efficiently close transactions," said Chairman William P. Foley in a press release.

"FNF aims to offer real estate professionals a robust set of technology solutions and SkySlope's transaction management platform and SkyTC transaction coordination services are integral parts of this vision."

Separately, Fidelity National Financial completed the distribution of its stake of what is now known as Black Knight Inc., to FNF Group's common stockholders.

"We believe Black Knight and FNF offer investors unique value propositions, and this transaction will unlock significant value for all shareholders," said Foley, who is also the executive chairman of Black Knight. "Both companies will benefit from a less complex corporate structure, enhanced trading liquidity, and eligibility for index inclusion."

ServiceLink, which previously had been branded as a Black Knight company, remained a part of Fidelity National Financial after the distribution. This change will not affect the day-to-day operations of ServiceLink, it said in a separate press release.

At the same time it first announced the Black Knight divestiture, Fidelity National Financial said it would exchange the shares of the tracking stock for its investment portfolio, FNFV Group, for those of a newly created stand-alone company, Cannae Holdings.

The company is still "moving through the process" toward completing this spinoff, said company spokesman Daniel Kennedy Murphy.