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Life Health > Annuities

Zinnia Gets Court Approval to Buy AnnuityNet's Parent

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Zinnia — a big financial technology firm with support from a large investment firm — has received bankruptcy court approval to buy the life and annuity assets of Ebix.

The best known Ebix life and annuity asset is AnnuityNet, an an annuity distribution system that competes with Roper Technologies’ iPipeline system and Hexure’s FireLight system for annuity orders.

AnnuityNet was created in 1997 by a group of insurance companies and investment firms.

Ash Sawhney, the president of the Ebix Insurance Solutions North America unit, plans to move to Zinnia with the Ebix life and annuity operations. He said the Zinnia acquisition is a great outcome for those operations.

“Zinnia has a clear vision for the future,” Sawhney said.

What it means: The systems you use to offer clients life insurance policies and annuities could have more features and work better.

Zinnia: Zinnia is a Greenwich, Connecticut-based technology company that once was known as SE2. It was formed from the technology services support arm of Security Benefit with backing from Eldridge, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based investment company that also owns businesses like Dick Clark Productions, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter.

Ebix: Ebix is a Johns Creek, Georgia-based company that has filed for Chapter 11 reorganization protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas because of problems with gift card operations in India.

Ebix got into the life and annuity technology business in 2006, when it acquired AnnuityNet.

The deal: Zinnia did not say in the announcement of court approval of its Ebix life and annuity business offer how much it intends to pay for the business.

In December, Zinnia said it had agreed to pay $400 million for the business, to get a bankruptcy-related bidding process started.

In addition to AnnuityNet, the deal includes LifeSpeed, a life insurance distribution tech business; WinFlex, a product performance illustration tool; TPP, an insurance policy underwriting system; and SmartOffice, a customer relationship management system for agents and advisors.

Zinnia hopes to close on the deal in early March.

Credit: NicoElNino/Adobe Stock


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