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The mortgage mergers and acquisitions of last year

ByBrad Finkelstein
December 29, 2025 5:50 AM

For the mortgage industry, 2025 is likely to go down as the year of the big deal. But that could be a temporary title as some experts expect the consolidation wave to continue in the new year.

Still among the biggest of the big:

But what might have been the most celebrated deal of all, one that was pitched by Pres. Trump, did not take place.
In August, the president posted on Truth Social a generated image of The Great American Mortgage Corp. listing on the New York Stock Exchange in November.

Speculation indicated it was to be an initial public offering of the merged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to start taking them out of conservatorship.

Well, November has come and gone, and other rumors/proposals, including that of an uplisting of both companies, have been floated with no official action for now.

But the most unusual 2025 announcement came from Stratmor and Teraverde, which announced in June they had terminated their agreement to combine 11 months earlier.

Why did it take so long to let everyone know? The misconception, both Teraverde's Jim Deitch and Stratmor's Garth Graham said, came about from an artificial intelligence-generated answer to a search engine question.

It became clear that the market was unaware the deal ended when Deitch was shown the message at an industry conference.

With all of the transactions, actual and contemplated which went on in 2025, here are some highlights that National Mortgage News covered:

Lower agrees to purchase Neat Labs

In what was among the first transactions during 2025, mortgage lender Lower agreed to buy an origination software company, Neat Labs; terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Among the goals of the deal was for further development of the LowerOS platform by integrating it with Neat Labs' proprietary technology.

Management had previously said it was looking for merger opportunities and this deal followed Lower's 2023 merger with Thrive Mortgage and adding former Premier Nationwide Lending branches to its network.

They did not stop after this deal, acquiring home search website Movoto in May. Terms of this deal also were not disclosed.

Mr. Cooper flips Flagstar's TPO business

Approximately six months after purchasing Flagstar's servicing and third party originations operations from New York Community Bancorp, Mr. Cooper sold the production channels to A&D (since rebranded to AD) Mortgage.

The price was not disclosed.

Reportedly Mr. Cooper approached A&D about the transaction, with the agreement signed two-and-one-half months before the merger with Rocket was announced.

Troubled Voxtur ends deal to sell subsidiary

Voxtur Analytics, based in Toronto but operating on both sides of U.S.-Canada border, terminated a deal to sell a majority stake in Blue Water Financial Technologies to University Bancorp in January.

Instead, the financially troubled company announced a review of its strategic options. But the review ended unsuccessfully and led to the next step.

On Nov. 10, Voxtur announced that it and several of its subsidiaries, including Blue Water as well as title and settlement services businesses, had initiated a court-supervised restructuring process in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice under the province's Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. It also has filed in Delaware under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Meanwhile, Rice Park Capital Management, the former owner of Blue Water, agreed to buy Rosegate Mortgage in November.

Plans are to merge Blue Water's Nexus Nova subsidiary with Rosegate. Other terms of the deal were not announced.

Old Republic disposes of title technology business

Old Republic International got rid of its title production software and eClosing company Ramquest through a partnership with Qualia Labs. Financial details were not announced.

In the January transaction, the 100% interest in Ramquest was transferred to Qualia. At one point, Old Republic along with former competitor LandAmerica owned minority stakes in the tech firm.

Later in 2025, Old Republic, which has a general insurance division as well as a title insurance line, bought Everett Cash Mutual Insurance, which provides coverage to small farm owners and select agricultural operations.

Union Home makes a pair of acquisitions

Privately held Union Home Mortgage continued its acquisition activity in 2025, first picking up Nations Reliable Lending in March. The price paid was not disclosed.

Then in July, it added a team of former UMortgage employees in its Cincinnati, Ohio office.

But it was the September purchase of Sierra Pacific Mortgage by the Strongsville, Ohio-company which resulted in the most social media angst, with several former employees of the acquired company complaining about the abrupt nature of how the news was conveyed to them

Anniemac another multiple buyer in 2025

New Jersey-based Anniemac Home Mortgage made two Florida acquisitions during the year.

In August it picked up Home Solution Lenders. This occurred one month after buying Florida Funding.

But like UHM, it too had done previous transactions, including OVM Financial in 2022 and Family First Funding during 2023.

Beeline splits from distillery

In what was a unique business model to begin with, Beeline Financial had merged with Bridgetown Spirits Corp., a publicly traded company, known as Eastside Distilling when the pair combined in September 2024.

But less than a year later, in July, Beeline parted ways with the alcohol maker and remained the publicly traded entity.

At the time, Chris Moe, chief financial officer of Beeline, said the Providence, Rhode Island-based company is betting on a stabilization in the mortgage lending market in 2026 as a key reason for leaving the partnership.

Radian exits real estate services in model shift

In September, Radian Group announced it was buying a specialty underwriter, Inigo, which participates in the Lloyd's marketplace, for $1.7 billion.

But as part of its business shift, the company put its real estate services business, along with a mortgage conduit and a title insurance agency and underwriter, up for sale.

"We determined along the way that the right path for us was to evolve from a monoline mortgage insurer to more of a global multiline insurer," CEO Rick Thornberry said.

As it did the strategic review process, Radian came to the conclusion that those businesses really deserved a different owner, someone who appreciated the long-term possibilities each possesses, Thornberry said.

Dream Finders moves further into mortgage and title

Dream Finders Homes CEO Patrick Zalupski was an active buyer in the sports world, buying the Tampa Bay Rays as the head of a group which includes Union Home CEO Bill Cosgrove.

In the mortgage world, his company was also an acquirer. In March, it bought the remaining equity it already did not own in Cherry Creek Mortgage.

In April, it completed its purchase of title insurance underwriter Alliant National.

These deals followed its July 2024 buy of Jet Home Loans.

A pair of LOS providers find new owners

In 2025, two of the industry's loan origination system providers found themselves under new ownership.

These were just the latest dominos to fall after the 2023 sale of Empower from Black Knight to Constellation Software, with its parent unit being rebranded as Dark Matter. That deal was to allow Black Knight's purchase by ICE Mortgage Technology to be completed.

In August, MeridianLink announced it would be going private as part of $2 billion deal with Centerbridge Partners.

The company completed an initial public offering in 2021 at the height of the pandemic-driven origination boom. At the end of October, Accenture sold Mortgage Cadence to Partnerone. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The Partnerone deal will help development of new integrations and tools at Mortgage Cadence, allowing it to better compete and serve lenders of all types and sizes, both companies noted when the transaction was announced.
Brad Finkelstein
Originations Editor, National Mortgage News
M&A Servicing Underwriting Secondary markets Mortgage technology
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