I know it seems like I’m reporting a lot on this blog about technology acquisitions. If you’re not interested in M&As, I suggest you skip this week’s contribution. In recent news LenderLive Network Inc. has acquired doc prep vendor Guardian Mortgage Documents. It’s an end-to-end business process outsourcing play that will certainly turn a few heads.
LenderLive provides business process outsourcing and technology to the financial industry. This move was designed to bring in house the one function that LenderLive outsources, doc prep. No sales price for the deal was publicly disclosed.
On the other side, GMD has worked for 10 years as the exclusive provider of document prep services to LenderLive. GMD will maintain its management and operations will continue from the Lakewood location.
“We started using Guardian 10 years ago as part of the preparation for closing documents,” explained Rick Seehausen, president of LenderLive. “That’s their core competency. They monitor the compliance of the documents and produce those documents.
“They compete strongly in the enterprise-class forms space. The opportunity presented itself where we could acquire the assets of GMD. We knew them and trusted them. This was the only component that we outsourced here at LenderLive actually. So, now we’re in sourcing everything. Geographically, they’re also close by.”
And in recent years we’ve seen doc preps like Desert Docs, Entyre and others get acquired by larger companies to flesh out their offerings. What does this mean for other doc preps? We’ll have to see, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see a few more get gobbled up soon too. On a positive note, docs are a critical part of the mortgage process and being acquired by a larger company with more financial power could be good for these doc preps if the acquiring company has the intelligence to keep the doc prep experts onboard after the sale, because let’s face it, they made these companies great. In this case LenderLive realizes the benefits having GMD’s president Michael O’Leary remain on staff.
“In a time when so much is changing in the financial industry, we are fortunate to have a strong relationship already in place with LenderLive,” Mr. O’Leary said. “It is good to know we are a part of a company that has the same commitment to quality and service that we have. LenderLive has an unparalleled reputation in the industry and joining our two companies offers complete mortgage origination and loan fulfillment services that deliver the best value to clients.”
So will LenderLive buy more companies? “We’re keeping our eyes open,” answered Mr. Seehausen. “However, there are no targeted acquisitions at this time. LenderLive has always positioned itself as a service provider to mortgage originators. This is a natural fit.
“There will also be no executive changes at Guardian. The president Mike O’Leary has been the president and founder for 20 years and will continue to do so. It will be business as usual. Also, right now Guardian will operate off of it’s own brand. It’s a very reputable name. In the foreseeable future that won’t change either.”
My guess is I’ll be writing about mergers and acquisitions for the foreseeable future here. I wonder who will get acquired next?
