Fidelity National Financial's new MLS information management spin-off, Fidelity National Information Solutions, folds in two more subsidiaries from the parent, making FNIS pull out the chair for one out of every two Realtor seats. Further, the combined offerings should turn competitors into customers.

The two new FNIS holdings are RISCO and REEZ. RISCO, says the company, was the number three MLS information service provider in the marketplace, and a specialist in browser-server (Internet-based) MLS systems. The other new sibling is REEZ, a transaction management provider.

Now let's put those pieces together with the other FNIS holdings and see what we have.

Fidelity National Financial is the largest provider of title insurance and real estate related products and services, with five major regional and national brands under its wing - Chicago Title, Fidelity National Title Insurance Company, Alamo Title, Security Union, and Ticor Title (western region) giving it approximately 30 percent market share nationally in title services, says the company.

Under its new spinoff FNIS, FNF has combined the assets and operations of:

• IDM Corp., - tax assessor records, public deeds
• Market Intelligence, Inc. - appraisals
• Fidelity National Credit Services - credit analysis services
• Fidelity National Tax Service - property tax services
• Fidelity National Flood Services - flood insurance, risk assessment services
• REEZ - open architecture transaction management system (not proprietary)
• VISTAfinfo - MLS services for mid-size to large MLSs, environmental disclosure services, agent productivity software
• RISCO - MLS services for small to mid-size MLSs

By contributing key pieces of its business at cost or near cost, and some at a loss, and rolling them into a new company with other key acquisitions, Fidelity owns 80 percent of FNIS stock. What is FNIS when you put the pieces together? The largest database of property information in the U.S. On an open architecture transaction management system, principals to the real estate transaction will be able to access MLS data, residential property tax services, consumer mortgage credit analysis, flood insurance determinations, automated to full-site appraisals and products derived from a national real estate information database.

How will they make money? Every person involved in a property transaction takes risks, from the consumer to the lender, to Realtors, to title insurers, to others - and they all want to minimize risk to close a transaction.

"Each business is built into a product," says Eric Swenson, COO of FNIS, "like the VISTAinfo disclosure products in California. IDM has a product called SiteX, an online product that is sold to title companies, realtors, lenders, and consumers. We also sell information in bulk to companies who might compete in these arenas.

But before this substantial one-stop-shop can be leveraged, the company has to get by its own debt restructuring.

The company has approved a refinancing plan that will "consolidate all of the Company's outstanding debt and preferred stock securities and take advantage of discount purchases of these securities by FNF, resulting in debt reduction and annual interest savings of approximately $9.5 million and $800,000 respectively, strengthening the company's financial standing and increasing free cash flow."

But Wall Street, who loves the biggest gorilla in the space, hasn't quite seen through the mist. With a reverse seven-to-one stock split for VISTAinfo shareholders who own 20 percent of the new company, FNIS is now trading on the NASDAQ for just under $8 a share. The company has issued forward looking statements that it expects to have first-year annual revenue of approximately $230 million.