Verisk loses its bid to exit the $2.35bn AccuLynx deal as FTC review becomes the last hurdle

Delaware's top court has upheld the order forcing the data group to pursue the roofing-software purchase, leaving antitrust clearance as the main variable

Verisk Analytics has lost its attempt to escape the $2.35bn cash purchase of AccuLynx, the cloud-based roofing software business, after the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Chancery Court's judgment against it. The company says it will proceed in accordance with the court's order, and that the deal remains subject to customary closing conditions and FTC review, with no guarantee it will be completed.

The ruling removes the litigation risk that could have delayed or derailed the deal. What remains is procedural rather than judicial, and it is the part Verisk controls least. The Chancery Court ordered specific performance, including commercially reasonable efforts to obtain Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust clearance and to close if the FTC approves. Investor attention therefore shifts to how long the agency takes, and whether it clears the deal at all.

That is not a formality. Insurance Journal reports that the FTC issued a second request, a demand for further information, after Verisk's answer on ServiceTitan, which left the December 26 review deadline unmet. Beinsure reports that the agency developed what the Chancery Court called a novel "market reset" theory of competitive harm after ServiceTitan raised discontinued negotiations with it. Insurance Journal adds that Verisk and AccuLynx had seen minimal antitrust risk, since the two do not compete directly or stand in a supplier-customer relationship.

The Chancery Court's Judge Bonnie David did not accept Verisk's case. Insurance Journal reports she found the termination invalid because Verisk's own willful conduct caused a closing condition to fail.