BKI - ICE purchase of Black Knight poses significant antitrust risk - analyst

ICE's (NYSE:ICE) planned $13 billion purchase of Black Knight (NYSE:BKI) has "significant" risk of antitrust issues and there likely aren't any simple remedies, according to Raymond James. Black Knight shares fell 2.8%, while ICE dropped 3.7%. The deal could see antitrust concern as ICE's Ellie Mae's Encompass platform is the the largest provide of loan origination software and Black Knight's Empower is the "clear #2," according to Raymond James analyst Patrick O'Shaughnessy. "Our specific concern is that U.S. regulators are already calling out the lack of competition amongst technology providers to the consumer finance area," O'Shaughnessy wrote in a note earlier. ICE's executives tried to assuage the antitrust concerns on ICE's earnings call on Thursday morning and told investors and analysts that the two businesses are complementary. "We came to the conclusion that these are 100% complementary businesses that service different parts of the mortgage ecosystem," Ben Jackson, an executive at ICE

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ICE purchase of Black Knight poses significant antitrust risk - analyst