New Empower owner rebrands business as Dark Matter

Even though the Empower LOS was the second most-used origination platform in the mortgage business, it was commonly seen as taking a back seat to its former corporate parent's servicing technology.

A rebranding to the name Dark Matter Technologies under its new ownership could change that. 

"We are now abundantly and solely focused on mortgage origination technology, and our clients specifically will see a difference there," said Sean Dugan, chief revenue officer. "As a lighter organization under Constellation ownership, we're going to be able to design and deliver in a more nimble way."

This transaction closed on Sept. 15, 10 days after Intercontinental Exchange completed its acquisition of Black Knight.

Constellation's purchase was contingent on the Federal Trade Commission dropping its opposition to the ICE deal, which it did in early August. 

ICE and Black Knight agreed to their deal in May 2022. The Empower sale was entered into in March in order to drive regulatory approval for the merger between two market giants.

But ICE, Black Knight and the Federal Trade Commission did not officially come together on their agreement until Aug. 25.

All along, "we're very optimistic, we got assurances from our counsel to indicate that this was going to eventually close," said Bonnie Wilhelm, chief operating officer of the Perseus Operating Group at Constellation. "We just weren't sure when that was going to happen."

Constellation first met with the Dark Matter team in February and is now excited they can officially work together, Wilhelm added.

The branding came about because management was looking for something that was more edgy. 

"Dark matter is the ubiquitous piece that helps the universe evolve, the constellations evolve [in a reference to the company's new ownership], and it's really the backbone of the universe," said Rich Gagliano, CEO of Dark Matter. "We view ourselves as the backbone of our originators and our clients" to help them create efficiencies and drive down costs.

Before the transaction, Gagliano was president of Black Knight Origination Technologies.

Empower will remain the name of the LOS, Gagliano said, noting it is in its 25th year in the marketplace.

Management has had preliminary discussions with clients prior to closing but these were limited because of certain regulatory guidelines.

"Next week we'll be reaching out to our clients and talking in a little more detail," Gagliano said. "The Constellation team has been great with spending time with our clients and I think they've gotten really comfortable with them."

Dark Matter will be reaching out via phone calls and emails in the coming days, Dugan added.

Most, if not all users will stay on the Empower system now that the deal is done.

"I think our clients really appreciate what we've done and all that we brought to the market," said Gagliano. "We expect our clients to stick with us and all indications are they're excited about Constellation and they're excited that this leadership team is staying together."

Constellation aims to have its businesses keep their customers forever as it is a long-term owner, said Scott Smith, the co-president of the Romulus Portfolio, Perseus Operating Group.

"We've worked with Rich and his team, understanding how they're investing and what they're doing so their customers stick around forever with Dark Matter," said Smith. That is a core philosophy across the 800 acquisitions and over 100 verticals that Constellation is in.

Constellation also owns Mortgage Builder (acquired from Altisource Portfolio Solutions in April 2019) and ReverseVision, purchased in February 2022, and those will remain separate businesses run independently from Dark Matter, said Smith.

Among the other businesses included in the sale to Dark Matter is the artificial intelligence initiative, Aiva, that Black Knight acquired in 2018. The Exchange Service Network also is now a part of Dark Matter.

However, the Optimal Blue product and pricing engine, which was also acquired by Constellation as part of the divestitures that enabled the ICE-Black Knight deal to go through, will be a separate business.