Fidelity increases investment in Lendingtree

Mortgage Banking, Dec, 2002

LENDINGTREE INC., CHARLOTTE, NORTH CARolina, announced that one of its early investors sold a portion of its preferred stock holdings in a private sale to three companies wholly owned by Fidelity National Financial Inc. (FNF), Santa Barbara, California. FNF purchased a total of 1.84 million shares of LendingTree's series-A 8-percent convertible preferred stock from Specialty Finance Partners, an affiliate of Capital Z Financial Services Partners. The preferred shares are currently convertible into 2 million shares of LendingTree's common stock.

Upon the transaction's closing, FNF beneficially owns a total of 3.6 million shares of LendingTree common stock, or 12.4 percent of the total voting stock of the company, making FNF the second-largest holder of voting stock. Capital Z remains LendingTree's largest shareholder and continues to beneficially own 4.4 million shares of common stock, or 15.4 percent of total voting stock.