ICE strengthens mortgage services with Ellie Mae acquisition

The cash and stock acquisition values Ellie Mae, a portfolio company of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, at $11 billion. The deal will close later this year

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has agreed to acquire Ellie Mae, a cloud-based platform provider for mortgage finance.

The cash and stock acquisition values Ellie Mae, a portfolio company of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, at $11 billion. The deal will close later this year.

Lenders rely on Ellie Mae’s Digital Lending Platform to securely manage and facilitate the exchange of data across the ecosystem to enable the origination of mortgages while maintaining strict adherence to various local, state and federal compliance requirements.

ICE said the acquisition of Ellie Mae, which has approximately 1,700 employees and more than 3,000 customers, will make it the leading provider of end-to-end electronic workflow solutions serving the evolving US residential mortgage industry.

ICE’s acquisition of MERS and Simplifile has helped to automate the post-closing process. The addition of Ellie Mae extends its reach to the origination space.

Jeffrey Sprecher, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of ICE, said: “Twenty years after we founded Intercontinental Exchange to provide a transparent trading platform for the energy industry, and following two decades of providing continued innovation to help customers navigate global markets, we are pleased to announce the acquisition of Ellie Mae, which will help us similarly transform the mortgage marketplace.”

“Our planned acquisition represents a one-of-a-kind opportunity to add an extraordinary enterprise with great leadership to our family. It will also enhance ICE’s growth strategy in mortgage technology, with complementary products and a wide array of customers and stakeholders who will benefit from our core and proven expertise in operating networks and marketplaces.”

Jonathan Corr, president and chief executive officer of Ellie Mae, added: “We are excited to be joining the Intercontinental Exchange family and having the opportunity to work closely with Simplifile and MERS in helping our industry to realize the true digital mortgage.”

“We have been on a journey, as we have long said, ‘to automate everything automatable’ for the mortgage industry, and joining ICE, which has followed a parallel journey in global exchanges, will allow us to further accelerate realising our vision.”

Image: Shutterstock

Mark Dugdale