CNSWF - FTC asks in-house judge to delay Black Knight/ICE case

2023-07-20 10:00:11 ET

The Federal Trade Commission asked an in-house administrative law judge to delay its case to challenge InterContinental Exchange's ( NYSE: ICE ) purchase of Black Knight ( NYSE: BKI ) by about a month. Black Knight ticked up 0.6%.

The FTC asked the ALJ to suspend the case for 28 days to give the antitrust regulator time to consider ICE's announcement on Monday that it agreed to sell Black Knight's Optimal Blue business to Constellation Software ( OTCPK:CNSWF ) for $700 million.

"The planned sale of Optimal Blue is a significant development in this case and requires time for Complaint Counsel to (1) analyze the implications of the divestiture for the administrative proceedings, (2) discuss a potential resolution of the pending matter with Respondents, and (3) advise the Commission," the FTC said in a legal filing on Wednesday.

The evidentiary hearing in the administrative proceeding is scheduled to being on Sept. 25.

The FTC request comes after the parties and the regulator asked a federal court to delay a hearing that was scheduled for next week until next month, and a judge granted their request on Monday. The federal court case is scheduled to start Aug. 14.

The divestiture announcement comes as the companies are trying to appease the Federal Trade Commission, which sued to block the $11.7 billion deal in March , saying the deal would reduce competition and innovation in the market for mortgage loan technology and would drive up costs for lenders and homebuyers .

Black Knight ( BKI ) was downgraded to hold from buy at Truist earlier this week as the announced sale of its Optimal Blue business increased the chance that BKI's sale to ICE would close.

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