Stewart Title Combines Landata Systems Inc. and Stewart Realty Solutions

January 13, 2006

New Company to Be Known as Stewart Transaction Solutions

HOUSTON, -- Landata Systems Inc. and Stewart Realty Solutions, wholly owned subsidiaries of Stewart Title Co., will merge to form Stewart Transaction Solutions in a move to sharpen focus of company's drive to the paperless real estate transaction.

The new company combines Landata Systems, a 27-year veteran in providing technology solutions for the title industry, with Stewart Realty Solutions, a company formed two years ago to take online transaction management to the real estate, closing and mortgage industries.

"This merger will improve Stewart's organization and focus to provide industry-leading e-solutions for the real estate transaction process," said Stewart Morris Jr., president, Stewart Title Co. "Stewart Transaction Solutions will manage product development, integration, infrastructure and marketing -- combining our company's and outside 'best of breed' technologies with a customer-centric strategy and moving beyond our Stewart Title office network to the real estate industry as a whole."

Key Stewart technologies being handled by the new company include the SureClose® online transaction management system, the eClosingRoom(TM) electronic closing platform (developed by Stewart Title and Silanis Technology), the AIM® for Windows® title production system, and the TitleSearch® title plant, document imaging and search analysis systems.

Mike Davis serves as chief executive officer of Stewart Transaction Solutions, and Travis Wright serves as the company's president and director of business development. Davis had served as president of Landata Systems and Wright had served as chief executive officer of Stewart Realty Solutions. Davis will remain as chief information officer of Stewart Title's parent company, Stewart Information Services Corp.

"Bringing more control of the development, support and business services under one roof will better serve our customers and better focus our efforts to generate revenue on sales of our technology," said Davis. "Aligning the experience of Landata Systems with the transaction management expertise of Stewart Realty Solutions will provide a single point of contact for product information, sales and support of the technology that drives the paperless real estate transaction process."

Wright said, "We consider SureClose to be the industry-leading transaction management platform, as evidenced by its 1,500,000-plus transaction files online. SureClose is deployed in more than 1,000 title and real estate offices nationwide.

"The success we've had with SureClose and eClosingRoom to take our processes to the digital realm, share those critical documents with all parties and then e-sign those documents at the closing table shows how Stewart has perfected the technology, integrations and best practices that take us closer to the true paperless transaction than anyone else in the real estate industry," said Wright. "This technology will benefit the consumer, real estate agent and broker, lender, builder and title agent customer segments."

"We're excited about this merger because we are showing the industry the clear path to the future of efficient, simpler and transparent realty transactions," he added. "This organizational change will sharpen our focus to take these tools from being concentrated on the contract-to-closing phase of the transaction -- to the arena where the transaction is paperless from the moment the real estate agent takes a listing, all the way to having the closing documents being archived electronically."

More information may be found at http://www.stewarttransactionsolutions.com .

Source: Stewart Title Co.


Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or communications@alta.org.