Description of the Company

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Description of the Company

Description of the Company

We were originally incorporated in California in 1894, and were reincorporated in Delaware on June 1, 2010 immediately following a transaction that spun off our financial services businesses, which we refer to as "the Separation" as more fully described below. Before June 1, 2010, we operated as The First American Corporation (“First American” or “FAC”). In connection with the Separation, we changed our name to CoreLogic, Inc. and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CLGX.” As used herein, the terms CoreLogic, the Company, we, our and us refer to CoreLogic, Inc. and our consolidated subsidiaries, except where it is clear that the terms mean only CoreLogic, Inc. and not our subsidiaries.

We are a leading provider of property, financial and consumer information, analytics and services to mortgage originators and servicers, financial institutions and other businesses, government and government-sponsored enterprises. Our data, query, analytical and business outsourcing services help our customers to identify, manage and mitigate credit and interest rate risk. We are also party to several joint ventures that provide products used in connection with loan originations, including title insurance, appraisal services and other settlement services. These joint ventures are reflected as investments in affiliates on our consolidated balance sheets and our share of the income is reflected as equity in earnings of affiliates in our consolidated statement of operations.

Separation Transaction

On June 1, 2010, we completed the Separation under which we spun off our financial services businesses into a new, publicly-traded, New York Stock Exchange-listed company called First American Financial Corporation (“FAFC”) through a distribution (the “Distribution”) of all of the outstanding shares of FAFC, to the holders of our common shares, par value $1.00 per share, as of May 26, 2010. After the Distribution, we retained the information solutions businesses.

To effect the Separation, we entered into a Separation and Distribution Agreement (the “Separation and Distribution Agreement”) that governs the rights and obligations of the Company and FAFC regarding the Distribution. It also governs the on-going relationship between the Company and FAFC subsequent to the completion of the Separation and provides for the allocation of assets and liabilities between FAFC and the Company. In addition, we also entered into a Tax Sharing Agreement (the “Tax Sharing Agreement”) as described in Note 10 – Income Taxes, a Restrictive Covenants Agreement, and we issued a promissory note to FAFC in the principal amount of $19.9 million relating to certain pension liabilities. We repaid the promissory note in full in September 2011. See Note 12 – Employee Benefit Plans.

While we are a party to the Separation and Distribution Agreement and various other agreements relating to the Separation, we have determined that we have no material continuing involvement in the operations of FAFC. As a result of the Separation, the FAFC businesses are reflected in our consolidated financial statements as discontinued operations for the years ended December 31, 2010 and 2009. See Note 19 – Discontinued Operations for additional disclosures.

As part of the Separation, we are responsible for a portion of FAFC’s contingent and other corporate liabilities.

In connection with the Separation transactions, we issued approximately $250.0 million, in value, or 12,933,265 shares of our common stock to FAFC. Based on the closing price of our stock on June 1, 2010, the value of the equity issued to FAFC was $242.6 million. As a result, we made a cash payment to FAFC of $7.4 million to arrive at the full value of $250.0 million. FAFC has agreed to dispose of the shares five years after the Separation or to bear any adverse tax consequences arising out of holding the shares for longer than that period. On April 11, 2011, we purchased 4.0 million shares of our common stock from a wholly-owned subsidiary of FAFC for total consideration of $75.8 million based on a spot market price of our common stock on April 5, 2011 of $18.95 per share. The price per share was agreed upon by the parties during the trading day on April 5, 2011. See further discussion at Note 19 - Transactions with FAFC.

We have included all of the corporate costs of FAC up to the Separation date in our consolidated statement of income. For the years ended December 31, 2010 and 2009, those net expenses totaled approximately $69.0 million (including Separation-related expenses totaling approximately $29.3 million) and $95.9 million, respectively.