Cannae Holdings Inc

Introductory Note

The following describes the business of Cannae Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Except where otherwise noted, all references to "we," "us," "our," "Cannae," "Cannae Holdings" or the "Company," are to Cannae Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries, taken together.

Company Background

On November 17, 2017, Fidelity National Financial, Inc. ("FNF", NYSE: FNF) redeemed each outstanding share of its FNF Ventures ("FNFV") Group common stock, par value $0.0001, for one share of common stock, par value $0.0001, of a newly formed entity, Cannae (the "Split-Off"). In conjunction with the Split-Off, FNF contributed to us its portfolio of companies unrelated to its primary insurance and real estate operations, which included majority and minority equity interests in a number of entities and certain fixed income investments. On November 20, 2017, Cannae common stock began "regular-way" trading on The New York Stock Exchange under the "CNNE" stock symbol.

Description of Business

We primarily acquire interests in operating companies and are engaged in actively managing and operating a core group of those companies, which we are committed to supporting for the long term. From time to time, we also seek to take meaningful equity ownership stakes where we have the ability to control or significantly influence quality companies, and we bring the strength of our operational expertise to each of our subsidiaries. We are a long-term owner that secures control and governance rights of other companies primarily to engage in their lines of business and we have no preset time constraints dictating when we sell or dispose of our businesses. We believe that our long-term ownership and active involvement in the management and operations of companies helps maximize the value of those businesses for our shareholders. Our primary assets as of December 31, 2023 include our ownership interests in Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. ("Dun & Bradstreet" or "D&B", NYSE: DNB); Dayforce, Inc. ("Dayforce", formerly known as Ceridian HCM Holdings, Inc., NYSE: DAY); Alight, Inc. ("Alight", NYSE: ALIT); Paysafe Limited ("Paysafe", NYSE: PSFE); Sightline Payments Holdings, LLC ("Sightline"); System1, Inc. ("System1", NYSE: SST); Black Knight Football and Entertainment, LP ("BKFE"); Computer Services, Inc. ("CSI"); High Sierra Distillery, LP ("Minden Mill"); AmeriLife Group, LLC ("AmeriLife"); O'Charley's Holdings, LLC ("O'Charley's"); 99 Restaurants Holdings, LLC ("99 Restaurants"); and various other controlled companies and minority equity ownership interests.

The Company conducts its business through its wholly-owned subsidiary Cannae Holdings, LLC ("Cannae LLC"), a Delaware limited liability company. The Company’s board of directors ("Board") oversees the management of the Company, Cannae LLC and its businesses, and the performance of Trasimene Capital Management, LLC ("Trasimene" or our "Manager"), through which the Company manages its business operations and those of its subsidiaries. The Company, Cannae LLC, and our Manager are party to a Management Services Agreement dated as of August 27, 2019, as amended and restated on August 4, 2021, September 30, 2023 and February 26, 2024 (as amended and restated, the "Management Services Agreement"). Subject at all times to the supervision and direction of the Board, the Manager is responsible for, among other things, (i) managing the day-to-day business and operations of the Company and its subsidiaries, (ii) evaluating the financial and operational performance of the Company's businesses, (iii) providing a management team to serve as executive officers of the Company and (iv) performing (or causing to be performed) any other services for and on behalf of the Company and the Subsidiaries customarily performed by executive officers and employees of a public company.

We believe Cannae provides our investors with a compelling opportunity to participate in the acquisition, operation and growth of businesses by a world-class management team. Fundamentally, the Company seeks to take meaningful equity ownership stakes where we have an ability to control or significantly influence quality companies that are well-positioned in their respective industries, run by best-in-class management teams and that operate in industries that have attractive organic and acquired growth opportunities. Led by William P. Foley II ("Bill Foley") and facilitated through our Manager and the Company's internal management team, we leverage our management team's operational expertise, long-term relationships and industry connections and capital sourcing capabilities to identify, structure and execute on ownership interests in companies with these characteristics.

Our management team has a proven track record of growing industry-leading companies, including the Company's subsidiaries, and we actively and continuously work with and support management teams of the companies we own in managing, operating, and growing their businesses in order to provide value for our shareholders. Bill Foley-led management teams are responsible for the growth of publicly traded companies such as FNF, Black Knight, Inc. ("Black Knight", formerly NYSE: BKI), Dayforce, D&B, Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE: FIS) and F&G Annuities & Life, Inc. ("FG", NYSE: FG).

As of December 31, 2023, we had the following reportable segments:

Dun & Bradstreet. This segment consists of our 18.0% ownership interest in D&B. Cannae's Chief Executive Officer, Chief Investment Officer and Chairman of our Board, Bill Foley, and Vice Chairman of our Board, Richard Massey, serve on the board of directors of D&B, with Mr. Foley serving as chairman of D&B's board of directors. Dun & Bradstreet is a leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics. Its mission is to deliver a global network of trust, enabling clients to transform uncertainty into confidence, risk into opportunity and potential into prosperity. Clients embed D&B's trusted, end-to-end solutions into their daily workflows to inform commercial credit decisions, evaluate whether suppliers and other third parties are financially viable, reputable, compliant and resilient, enhance salesforce productivity and gain visibility into key markets. D&B's solutions support its clients’ mission critical business operations by providing proprietary and curated data and analytics to help drive informed decisions and improved outcomes.

D&B is differentiated by the scale, depth, diversity and accuracy of their constantly expanding business database, known as their "Data Cloud," that contains comprehensive information on more than 550 million total organizations as of December 31, 2023. Access to longitudinal curated data is critical for global commerce, and with only a small percentage of the world’s businesses filing public financial statements, D&B's data is a trusted source for reliable information about both public and private businesses. By building such a set of data over time, D&B is able to establish a unique identifier that creates a single thread connecting related corporate entities allowing our clients to form a holistic view of an enterprise. This unique identifier, which D&B refers to as the D-U-N-S Number, is an organization's "fingerprint" or "Social Security Number." D&B believes that they are the only scale provider to possess both worldwide commercial credit data and comprehensive public records data that are linked together by a unique identifier allowing for an accurate assessment of public and private businesses globally.

Leveraging its commercial credit data and analytics, as well as compliance intelligence, D&B's Finance & Risk solutions are used in the critical decisioning processes of finance, risk, compliance and procurement departments worldwide. D&B is a market leader in commercial credit decisioning, with many of the top businesses in the world utilizing its solutions to make informed decisions when considering extending business loans and trade credit. D&B is also a leading provider of data and analytics to businesses looking to analyze supplier relationships and more effectively collect outstanding receivables, detect and mitigate business fraud, and assess and track their business partners' Environmental, Social and Governance ("ESG") performance and activities. We believe D&B's proprietary Paydex score, a numerical indicator based on promptness of a business's payments to its suppliers and vendors, is widely relied upon as an important measure of credit health for businesses. D&B is well positioned to provide accessible and actionable insights and analytics that mitigate risk and uncertainty, and ultimately protect and drive increased profitability for its clients.

D&B's Sales & Marketing solutions combine firmographic, personal contact, intent and non-traditional, or alternative data, such as foot traffic, website usage, social media posts, online browsing activity and shipping trackers, to assist clients in optimizing their sales and marketing strategy by cleansing customer relationship management data and narrowing their focus and efforts on the highest probability prospects. As global competition continues to intensify, businesses need assistance with focusing their sales pipelines into a condensed list so that they can have their best sellers target the highest probability return accounts. D&B provides invaluable insights into businesses that can help its clients grow their businesses in a more efficient and effective manner.

We account for our ownership of Dun & Bradstreet using the equity method of accounting; therefore, its results of operations do not consolidate into ours.

Alight. This segment consists of our 9.7% ownership interest in Alight. Cannae's Chief Executive Officer, Chief Investment Officer and Chairman of our Board, Bill Foley, Vice Chairman of our Board, Richard Massey, and director Erika Meinhardt serve on the board of directors of Alight, with Mr. Foley serving as chairman of Alight's board of directors. Alight delivers human capital management solutions to many of the world’s largest and most complex companies. This includes the implementation and administration of both employee wellbeing (e.g., health, wealth and leaves benefits) and global payroll solutions. In addition, Alight implements and runs human capital management software platforms on behalf of third-party providers. Alight’s numerous solutions and services are utilized year-round by employees and their family members in support of their overall health, wealth and wellbeing goals. Participants can access their solutions digitally, including through a mobile application on Alight Worklife®, their intuitive, cloud-based employee engagement platform. Through Alight Worklife, Alight believes it is defining the future of employee wellbeing by providing an enterprise level, integrated offering designed to drive better outcomes for organizations and individuals.

Alight provides its Alight Worklife® platform through its Employer Solutions segment which provides services including total employee wellbeing, integrated benefits administration, healthcare navigation, financial wellbeing, leave of absence management, retiree healthcare and payroll. Alight leverages data across all interactions and activities to improve the employee experience, reduce operational costs and better inform management processes and decision-making. Alight's clients' employees benefit from an integrated platform and user experience, coupled with a full-service customer care center, helping them manage the full life cycle of their health, wealth and wellbeing. Alight's Professional Services segment includes its project-based cloud deployment and consulting offerings that provide expertise with both human capital and financial platforms. Specifically, this includes cloud advisory and deployment, and optimization services for cloud platforms such as Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle, and Cornerstone OnDemand.

Alight delivers their solutions through a set of proprietary and partner technologies, a well-developed network of providers and a structured approach to instill and sustain enterprise-wide practices of excellence. Alight's solutions are supported through a secure and scalable cloud infrastructure, together with our core benefits processing platforms and consumer engagement tools and integrated with hundreds of external platforms and partners. This includes their Alight Marketplace, a diverse network of third-party providers supporting additional wellbeing programs and needs of participants. Alight's data and access across the breadth of human capital solutions provides it with comprehensive employee records to enable AI-driven, omnichannel engagement and a personalized, integrated experience for its clients’ employees. Through the use of predictive analytics and omnichannel engagement, Alight is able to tailor an employee experience that is unique to each individual’s needs and circumstance.

We account for our ownership of Alight using the equity method of accounting; therefore, its results of operations do not consolidate into ours.

Black Knight Football and Entertainment. This segment consists of our 47.7% ownership interest in BKFE. BKFE is a partnership led by Bill Foley that owns and operates A.F.C. Bournemouth ("AFCB"), an English Premier League ("EPL" or the "Premier League") football club founded in 1899, and a significant minority interest in FC Lorient ("FCL"), a French Ligue 1 football club founded in 1926. On February 28, 2024, BKFE entered into a strategic partnership with, and acquired a minority ownership interest in, The Hibernian Football Club Limited, a Scottish Premiership football club founded in 1875. BKFE is focused on building a global network of world-class football clubs, players, and real estate assets that will produce operational synergies, accelerate player development and enable efficient player migration across BKFE’s network of owned and operated clubs while driving strong on-field and financial results.

We account for our ownership of BKFE using the equity method of accounting; therefore, its results of operations do not consolidate into ours.

Restaurant Group. This segment consists of the operations of O'Charley's and 99 Restaurants in which we have 65.4% and 88.5% equity ownership interests, respectively. O'Charley's and 99 Restaurants and their affiliates are the owners and operators of the O'Charley's restaurant and Ninety Nine Restaurants restaurant concepts, respectively.

We account for our ownership of the Restaurant Group as a consolidated subsidiary.

Corporate and Other. This aggregation of nonreportable operating segments consists of our share in the operations of controlled and uncontrolled companies including our 2.6% ownership interest in Dayforce, 88.8% ownership interest in Minden Mill, 6.5% ownership interest in CSI, 32.6% ownership interest in Sightline, 2.8% ownership interest in Paysafe, 31.0% ownership interest in System1, 24.6% equity interest in Triple Tree Holdings, LLC ("Triple Tree"), 87.1% ownership interest in Brasada Ranch and various other minority equity ownership interests.

Dayforce is a leading global human capital management software company that offers a broad range of services and software designed to help employers more effectively manage employment processes, such as payroll, payroll-related tax filing, human resource information systems, employee self-service, time and labor management, employee assistance programs, and recruitment and applicant screening. Dayforce's technology-based services are typically provided through long-term customer relationships that are anticipated to result in a high level of recurring revenue.

Paysafe is a leading payments platform with an extensive track record of serving merchants and consumers in the global entertainment sectors. Its core purpose is to enable businesses and consumers to connect and transact seamlessly through industry-leading capabilities in payment processing, digital wallet, and online cash solutions.

System1 operates an omnichannel customer acquisition platform, delivering high-intent customers to advertisers and sells antivirus software packages to end user customers. System1 provides its services through its proprietary responsive acquisition marketing platform ("RAMP"). RAMP allows System1 to monetize users through its relationships with third-party advertisers and advertising networks. RAMP also allows third-party advertising platforms and publishers, to send user traffic to, and monetize user traffic on, System1’s owned and operated websites. RAMP operates across System1's network of owned and operated websites and related products, allowing it to monetize user traffic that it sources from various acquisition marketing channels.

CSI is a leading fintech, regtech and cybersecurity partner that delivers core processing, digital banking, managed cybersecurity, cybersecurity compliance, payments processing, print and electronic document distribution, and regulatory compliance solutions to financial institutions and corporate customers, both foreign and domestic.

Sightline Payments is a digital payments provider and mobile application developer to the United States' ("U.S.") sports betting and casino gaming market. Sightline leverages its technology to apply modern solutions to a traditionally cash-based casino industry projected to grow significantly over the next few years. While much of the business world shifts to a cashless society, the casino gaming industry is known for being cash dominant. Sightline's mission is to be the preeminent partner in transitioning toward cashless casino gaming. Sightline’s Play+ solution gives consumers a safe, secure, and responsible way to fund their online and in-person gaming activities and enables casinos to offer cashless wagering and payment options across the entire property.

Minden Mill, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, owns and operates an estate distillery and related hospitality venues.

Triple Tree is an independent, research-driven investment banking firm focused on mergers and acquisitions, financial restructuring, and principal investing services for innovative, high-growth businesses in the healthcare industry.

Brasada Ranch owns and operates an 1,800-acre ranch-style luxury resort and residential community in Oregon.

Refer to Item 7 of Part II of this Annual Report for further information on recent results of operations and transactions and other activity of our reportable segments.

Strategy and Business Trends

Our strategy for the Company is to continue to manage and operate the diversified businesses of our group of companies to create long-term growth of those businesses in order to maximize the value of those businesses for our shareholders, and to pursue similar strategies and objectives by taking significant, active ownership stakes in new businesses.

Dun & Bradstreet. We believe D&B has an attractive business model that is underpinned by highly recurring, diversified revenue, significant operating leverage, low capital requirements and strong free cash flow. The proprietary and embedded nature of D&B's data and analytics solutions and the integral role that D&B plays in its clients’ decision-making processes have historically translated into high client retention and revenue visibility. D&B also benefits from strong operating leverage given its centralized Data Cloud and solutions, which allow D&B to generate strong contribution margins and free cash flow.

Subsequent to our acquisition of an ownership stake in D&B in the first quarter of 2019, we worked closely with D&B to begin quickly implementing changes to address operational and execution issues at D&B that led to stagnant revenue growth and declining profitability over the last decade. We immediately brought in a new senior leadership team, which commenced a comprehensive transformation to improve and revitalize D&B's business for long-term success. The new senior leadership team saw significant opportunity to create value by transforming the organization and improving the platform with new business unit leaders, enhanced technology and data, solution innovation and a client-centric go-to-market strategy.

D&B's transformation strategy is based on Bill Foley's proven playbook of enhancing stockholder value through organizational re-alignment and re-investment. Initiatives implemented at D&B upon its 2019 leveraged buyout have resulted in significant synergies and cost savings. In light of the changes that have been made or identified by the Company and D&B's management team, we believe D&B is well-positioned to execute on its strategies of driving stockholder value through consistent revenue growth, managing cost initiatives and innovating and improving the way it adds value and solves the increasingly challenging and complex needs of its clients.

Businesses rely on business-to-business data and analytics providers to extract data-driven insights and make better decisions. For example, in commercial lending and trade credit, the scarcity of readily available credit history makes the extension of credit a time-consuming and imprecise process. In procurement, businesses face increasingly complex and global supply chains, making the assessment of compliance and viability of all suppliers prohibitively difficult and expensive if not conducted effectively. In sales and marketing, businesses have benefited from the proliferation of customer relationship management, Marketing Automation and Sales Acceleration tools designed to help identify, track and improve both customer management and prospecting growth activities. While these tools are helping to fill sales funnels and improve the progression of opportunities, key challenges remain in salesforce productivity, effective client segmentation and marketing campaign activation. Common stumbling blocks include incorrect, or outdated, contact information, duplicated or inaccurate firmographic data and a lack of synchronization between the various platforms in the marketing technology ecosystem.

D&B helps its clients solve these mission critical business problems. D&B believes the total addressable market ("TAM") in which it operates is large, growing and significantly under penetrated. D&B participates in the big data and analytics software market, as defined by Interactive Data Corporation ("IDC"), which represents a collection of software markets that functionally address decision support and decision automation. This market includes business intelligence and analytics tools, analytic data management and integration platforms and analytics and performance management applications. Within the broader market of data and analytics solutions, D&B serves a number of different markets, including the commercial credit data, sales and marketing data and Governance, Risk and Compliance ("GRC") markets to provide clients with decisioning support and automation. As D&B continues to drive innovation in its solutions, it expects to address a greater portion of this TAM as new use cases for its data assets and analytical capabilities are introduced.

D&B believes there are several key trends in the global macroeconomic environment generating additional growth in D&B's TAM and increasing the demand for its solutions, including growing recognition by business of the value of analytics and data-informed business decisioning, growth in data creation and applications driven by the proliferation of new technologies with new data sets and applications, advances in analytical capabilities that are unlocking the value of data, and heightened compliance requirements in the regulatory environment for business driven by the growth of new technologies.

Alight. Alight aims to be the pre-eminent employee experience partner by providing personalized experiences that help employees make the best decisions for themselves and their families about their health, wealth and wellbeing. At the same time, Alight helps employers tackle their biggest people and business challenges by helping them understand prevalence, trends and risks to generate better outcomes for the future and realize a return on their people investment. Alight's data, analytics and Artificial Intelligence ("AI") allow it to deliver actionable insights that drive measurable outcomes for companies and their people. Alight provides solutions to manage health and retirement benefits, tools for payroll and HR management, as well as solutions to manage the workforce from the cloud. Through directorships and other engagement, the Company works closely with the leadership of Alight, including with respect to Alight’s financial and operating performance, to help value for Company shareholders.

Restaurant Group. Our restaurant operations are focused in the casual dining segment of the restaurant industry. The Restaurant Group's strategy is to achieve long-term profit growth and drive increases in same store sales and guest counts. We have a highly-experienced management team that is focused on enhancing the guest experience at our restaurants and building team member engagement. We also utilize a shared service platform that takes advantage of the combined back-office synergies of our restaurant operating companies. Our goal is to maintain a strong balance sheet for our Restaurant Group to provide stability in all operating environments.

The restaurant industry is highly competitive and is often affected by changes in consumer tastes and discretionary spending patterns; changes in general economic conditions; public safety conditions or concerns; demographic trends; weather conditions; the cost of food products, labor, energy and other operating costs; and governmental regulations. Higher labor costs due to state and local minimum wage increases and shopping pattern shifts to e-commerce and "ready to eat" grocery and convenience stores have had a negative impact on restaurant performance, particularly in the casual dining restaurants in which the company operates.

The restaurant industry is also characterized by high capital investments for new restaurants and relatively high fixed or semi-variable restaurant operating expenses. Because of the high fixed and semi-variable expenses, changes in sales in existing restaurants are generally expected to significantly affect restaurant profitability because many restaurant costs and expenses are not expected to change at the same rate as sales. The most significant commodities that may affect our cost of food and beverage are beef, seafood, poultry, and dairy, which accounted for approximately half of our overall cost of food and beverage in the past. Generally, temporary increases in these costs are not passed on to guests; however, in the past, we have adjusted menu prices to compensate for increased costs of a more permanent nature.

Recent years were a period of high inflation relative to long-term inflation expectations in the U.S. This inflationary environment primarily impacted the commodity and labor costs of our Restaurant Group. We have adjusted menu pricing to account for these cost increases to an extent, but will continue to balance the impact of inflationary pressures on costs with the value proposition offered to customers with a focus on long-term profitability.

Average weekly sales per restaurant are typically higher in the first and fourth quarters than in other quarters, and we typically generate a disproportionate share of our earnings from operations in the first and fourth quarters. Holidays, severe weather and other disruptive conditions may impact sales volumes seasonally in some operating regions.

Our revenues in future periods will continue to be subject to these and other factors that are beyond our control and, as a result, are likely to fluctuate.

The Restaurant Group has undertaken a project to renegotiate or terminate leases and close O'Charley's stores with unfavorable store-level cash flow profiles. Through this process it closed 77 O'Charley's stores in the year ended December 31, 2023. We expect the process to generally reduce the future revenue and improve the future operating profitability of our Restaurant Group, however we cannot be certain of the precise financial impact as of the date of this Annual Report.

Black Knight Football. Football, or soccer, is the most popular sport in the world with billions of fans globally. BKFE’s football clubs compete in some of the most competitive and highly visible football leagues in the world. The Premier League estimates that over 3 billion people watch its matches globally. Sports is one of the last remaining forms of content in the media ecosystem that is consumed live, making it must-have content for advertisers. As a result, major sports properties, and in particular top global soccer leagues which have the highest global viewership, are experiencing continued increases in the value of their media rights as networks rely on live sports content to attract and retain audiences and advertisers. BKFE's football clubs share in these global media trends through central distributions from their domestic leagues.

BKFE is focused on acquiring and partnering with clubs led by executives with local expertise, proven track records for financial and on-field success, and clear operational fit within BKFE's network of clubs to help further develop and implement BKFE’s strategy. In addition to the significant involvement of the Company’s chairman, Mr. Foley, who is the general partner of BKFE, the Company’s management team is extensively engaged in oversight of and working with BKFE management in helping BKFE implement its strategy. BKFE's strategy is to acquire, or partner with, clubs in top-tier leagues with valuable media rights and in countries with a history of deep player talent pools. Operating under this multiple-club model will allow BKFE to drive efficient player migration across its network of clubs, accelerate player development, and create operational, cost saving and commercial revenue synergies which we expect to give BKFE a competitive advantage over the long-term.

Top tier clubs in European football leagues earn significant revenues from revenue streams such as advertising and sponsorships, merchandise, and hospitality offerings. Most clubs competing in the top European football leagues, including BKFE's clubs, earn the majority of their revenues from media rights distributions from their domestic leagues. European leagues generally distribute their earnings from domestic and international media rights to each club and the distributions to each club are more lucrative the better the club finishes in its domestic league table. More recently, international media rights have become a more meaningful revenue driver in some of the largest leagues around the world, particularly in the Premier League. According to the Premier League, the value of its international media rights rose to $4.3 billion in the 2022-2023 season, which represents 44% of the total value of global media rights for all leagues. We expect the proliferation of streaming and other new media distribution platforms to continue to drive demand for international football rights as streaming services seek unique content to help differentiate themselves from their competitors.

BKFE aims to take a measured approach to investing in world-class infrastructure and top players, coaches and executive management for each of its clubs in order to improve on field performance, execute on opportunities around fan engagement and brand expansion, and create new commercial revenue streams for advertising and sponsorships.

Acquisitions, Dispositions, Minority Owned Operating Affiliates and Financings. Acquisitions are an important part of our growth strategy. We may dispose of assets when we identify opportunities to re-allocate our capital to owning, managing, and operating new companies that provide our shareholders with prudent risk-based returns on their own investment in Cannae on a long-term basis. On an ongoing basis, with assistance from our Manager and outside advisors, we actively evaluate possible transactions to enhance the value of the companies we own, such as acquisitions of business units and operating assets and business combination transactions.

We primarily engage in various lines of business through long-term ownership together with control or significant influence of companies, though in the future we may seek to sell certain subsidiaries or other assets as part of our capital reallocation initiatives. Further, we may make acquisitions in lines of business that are not directly tied to, or synergistic with, our current operating segments. While we primarily own interests in companies that we control or have the ability to significantly influence the operations of, we have allocated, and expect to allocate in the future, a smaller portion of our capital to minority ownership stakes in companies over which we do not exercise significant influence or have control.

There can be no assurance that any suitable opportunities will arise or that any particular transaction will be completed. We have made a number of acquisitions and dispositions over the past several years to strengthen and expand the service offerings and customer bases of our businesses, to expand or re-allocate our capital by acquiring significant equity ownership of other businesses or where we otherwise saw value.

Competition

Dun & Bradstreet. Dun & Bradstreet primarily competes on the basis of differentiated data sets, analytical capabilities, solutions, client relationships, innovation and price. D&B believes that it competes favorably in each of these categories across its business segments. D&B's competitors vary based on the client size and geographical markets that its solutions cover.

For Dun & Bradstreet's finance and risk solutions segment, its competition generally varies by client size. D&B has a leading presence in the enterprise market as clients place a high degree of value on D&B's best-in-class commercial credit database to inform their critical decisions around the extension of credit. D&B’s main competitors in the enterprise and mid-market include Bureau van Dijk (owned by Moody’s Corporation), Experian and Creditsafe in Europe and Equifax and Experian in North America. In the small and mid-size company market D&B's competition generally includes Equifax, Experian and other consumer credit providers that offer commercial data. Additionally, there is a fragmented tail of low cost, vertical and regionally focused point solutions in this market that may be attractive to certain clients, but lack the scale and coverage breadth to compete holistically.

For Dun & Bradstreet's sales and marketing solutions segment, its competition has historically been very fragmented with many players offering varying levels of data quantity and quality, and with data being collected in ways that may cross ethical and privacy boundaries. Dun & Bradstreet strives to protect the data and privacy of its clients and to maintain the highest standards in the ethical acquisition, aggregation, curation and delivery of data. D&B's direct competitors vary depending on use cases, such as market segmentation, digital marketing lead generation, lead enrichment, sales effectiveness and data management. In the market for contact data, D&B's competition generally includes ZoomInfo and a few consultancies building bespoke solutions. For other sales and marketing solutions such as customer data platform, visitor intelligence, audience targeting and intent data, D&B faces a number of smaller competitors.

Overall, outside North America, D&B's competitive environment varies by region and country, and can be significantly impacted by the legislative actions of local governments, availability of data and local business preferences. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, D&B's direct competition for its Finance & Risk solutions segment is primarily from Moody's Analytics and Creditsafe. Additionally, the Sales & Marketing solutions landscape in these markets is both localized and fragmented, where numerous local players of varying sizes compete for business. In the Northern Europe, D&B faces competition from Enento and Experian and in Central and Eastern European markets they compete with several regional and local players. In Asia Pacific, D&B faces competition in its Finance & Risk solutions segment from a mix of local and global providers. In China, D&B competes with global providers such as Experian and Moody's Corporation, as well as technology driven local players focusing on domestic data. In India, D&B competes with local competitors. In addition, as in the United Kingdom, D&B's sales and marketing solutions landscape throughout Asia is localized and fragmented.

Alight. The markets for Alight's solutions are competitive, rapidly evolving and fragmented. Its business faces competition from other global and national companies. The markets for Alight's solutions are subject to change as a result of economic, regulatory and legislative changes, technological developments, shifting client needs and increased competition from established and new competitors. Alight does not believe there is any single competitor with the breadth of their solutions, and thus Alight's competitors vary for each of its solutions. Alight's primary competitors include Accenture, Accolade, ADP, bswift, Businessolver, Cognizant, Conduent, Deloitte, Empower, Fidelity, Included Health, HealthEquity, Mercer, OneSource Virtual, Quantum Health, SD Worx, Voya, WTW, and Workday. Alight competes primarily on the basis of product and service quality, technology, breadth of offerings, ease of use and accessibility of technology, data protection, innovation, trust and reliability, price, and reputation.

Restaurant Group. The restaurant industry is highly competitive and is often affected by changes in consumer tastes. Competition for our restaurant brands varies by location. In general, our restaurant brands compete within each market with national and regional chains and locally-owned restaurants for guests, management and hourly personnel and suitable real estate sites. Restaurants are increasingly competing with grocery stores who are expanding their offerings of quick serve, ready-made meals and meal kits and with meal kit delivery services, which have increased market share in recent years. We expect to continue to compete in these areas.

Black Knight Football. BKFE’s football clubs compete against other football clubs in their respective domestic leagues for match attendance, matchday revenue and in domestic competitions. BKFE’s football clubs also compete against football clubs around Europe and the rest of the world to attract the best players and coaches in the global transfer and football staff markets. Additionally, BKFE’s clubs and their respective leagues compete against other types of television programming for broadcaster attention and advertiser income both domestically and in other markets around the world. BKFE’s clubs also compete against alternative forms of live entertainment for the sale of matchday tickets, including other live sports, concerts, festivals, and similar events.

Competitive Strengths

Proven management team. Our Board and executive management team, led by Bill Foley, has a proven track record of identifying, acquiring, managing and operating businesses. In particular, Bill Foley has led the growth of several multi-billion dollar companies with hundreds of acquisitions across diverse platforms, including, FNF, FIS, Black Knight, Dayforce, D&B and FG. Our Board and executive management's breadth of knowledge of operational matters and capital markets allows us to identify companies and strategic assets with attractive value propositions, to structure acquisitions to maximize the value acquired businesses, and to return the value created to our shareholders through long-term profitable operation of those businesses and, when appropriate, dispositions.

Intellectual Property

Dun & Bradstreet. D&B owns and controls various intellectual property rights, such as trade secrets, confidential information, trademarks, service marks, tradenames, copyrights, patents and applications to the foregoing. These rights, in the aggregate, are of material importance to Dun & Bradstreet's business. D&B believes that the Dun & Bradstreet name and related tradenames, marks and logos are also of material importance to its business. Dun & Bradstreet is licensed to use certain technology and other intellectual property rights owned and controlled by others, and other companies are licensed to use certain technology and other intellectual property rights owned and controlled by it. Dun & Bradstreet's trademarks, service marks, databases, software, copyrights, patents, patent applications and other intellectual property are proprietary and accordingly it relies on a combination of statutory (e.g., copyright, trademark, trade secret, patent, etc.) and contract and liability safeguards for protecting them throughout the world.

Dun & Bradstreet owns patents and patent applications both in the U.S. and in other selected countries. The patents and patent applications include claims, which pertain to certain technologies and inventions that D&B has determined are proprietary and warrant patent protection. The protection of its innovative technology and inventions, such as its proprietary methods for data curation and identity resolution, through the filing of patent applications, is part of Dun & Bradstreet's business strategy. Filing of patent applications may or may not provide Dun & Bradstreet with a dominant position in the fields of technology. However, these patents and/or patent applications may provide Dun & Bradstreet with legal defenses should subsequent patents in these fields be issued to third parties and later asserted against it. Where appropriate, Dun & Bradstreet may also consider asserting or cross-licensing its patents.

Alight. Alight's intellectual property portfolio is comprised of various copyrights (including copyrights in software) and trademarks, as well as certain trade secrets or proprietary know-how of its business. Alight's success has resulted in part from its proprietary methodologies, processes and other intellectual property, such as certain of its platforms. However, any of Alight's proprietary rights could be challenged, invalidated or circumvented, or may not provide significant competitive advantages.

Alight's business relies on software provided by both internal development and external sourcing to deliver its services. With respect to internally developed software, Alight claims copyright on all such software, registering works where appropriate. Alight requires all employees and contractors to assign to it the rights to works developed on Alight's behalf. In addition, Alight relies on maintaining source code confidentiality to maintain its market competitiveness. With respect to externally sourced software, Alight relies on contracts to allow for continued access for its business usage.

In the U.S., trademark registrations may have a perpetual life, subject to continuous use and renewal every ten years, and may be subject to cancellation or invalidation based on certain use requirements and third-party challenges, or on other grounds. Alight vigorously enforces and protects its trademarks.

Restaurant Group. We regard our Restaurant Group's service marks, including "O'Charley's", "Ninety Nine" and other service marks and trademarks as important factors in the marketing of our restaurants. In the year ended December 31, 2021, we sold our previously held "Legendary Baking" and "Village Inn" trademarks. We have also obtained trademarks for several of our brands' menu items and for various advertising slogans. Our policy is to pursue registration of our marks whenever possible and to oppose vigorously any infringement of our marks.

We license the use of our registered trademarks and service marks to franchisees and third parties through franchise arrangements and licenses. The franchise and license arrangements restrict franchisees' and licensees' activities with respect to the use of our trademarks and service marks, and impose quality control standards in connection with goods and services offered in connection with the trademarks and service marks.

Black Knight Football. BKFE's football clubs have service marks and trademarks which we believe are critical to the clubs' brand values and commercial revenues. BKFE's policy is to pursue registration of its marks whenever possible and to oppose vigorously any infringement of its marks.

Regulation

Our corporate business activities are subject to regulation under the laws of the U.S. at the federal and state level. The activities of our various businesses are also subject to regulation and in the U.S. and other jurisdictions in which they operate, including foreign jurisdictions. See Item 1ARisk Factors of this Annual Report for further information on risks related to regulations impacting Cannae, D&B, Alight and BKFE that may have an adverse effect on our businesses.

Information Security

We and our unconsolidated affiliates are highly dependent on information technology networks and systems to securely process, transmit and store electronic information. Attacks on information technology systems continue to grow in frequency, complexity and sophistication. Such attacks have become a point of focus for individuals, businesses and governmental entities. These attacks can create system disruptions, shutdowns or unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, including non-public personal information, consumer data and proprietary business information.

We and our unconsolidated affiliates remain focused on making strategic investments in information security to protect the clients and information systems of our operating subsidiaries and unconsolidated affiliates. This includes both capital expenditures and operating expenses on hardware, software, personnel and consulting services. As the primary products and services of our operating subsidiaries and unconsolidated affiliates evolve, we apply a comprehensive approach to the mitigation of identified security risks. We have established risk management policies, including those related to information security and cybersecurity, designed to monitor and mitigate information security related risks.

See Item 1CCybersecurity of this Annual Report for further discussion of the Company's information security and related risk management processes.

Human Capital Resources

Employees

As of December 31, 2023, Cannae and our consolidated subsidiaries had 7,741 employees, which includes 7,517 in our Restaurant Group and 224 in the various consolidated businesses comprising our Corporate and Other segment. None of our employees are unionized or represented by any collective agency. We believe that our relations with employees are generally good.

Our Manager and Cannae LLC rely on the experience and expertise of a small number of highly qualified employees which make up our corporate management team. We continually assess our management team's capabilities and capacity with a view toward the long-term sustainability of the Company's operations.

Diversity

Diversity is a key component of our success, both at Cannae and within our subsidiary companies. We stand committed to our philosophy that all employees deserve an inclusive workplace, one where each employee feels heard and empowered. We believe that the diversity of our employees and directors provides a variety of ideas and perspectives that allow us to achieve superior business results. Cannae and Cannae’s subsidiary companies are committed to being equal opportunity employers and enhancing diversity and inclusion across our businesses. Cannae’s Code of Conduct & Ethics prohibits discrimination and harassment. Our nondiscrimination policy is distributed to all employees as part of our employee handbook, which employees must acknowledge annually. Our employees participate in annual programs including Code of Business Conduct and Ethics Training, and Reporting Harassment: Everyone’s Responsibility Training.

Board Diversity

In 2019, our board codified its commitment to diversity when selecting new director nominees, including candidates with a diversity of age, gender, nationality, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation by integrating this language into the director selection criteria in our Corporate Governance Guidelines. As of December 31, 2023, four out of eleven directors identify themselves as diverse.

Sustainability

We recognize that in our rapidly changing global economy, the management of ESG risks and opportunities is important for our long-term business success. Our Company and our board are committed to addressing ESG issues to better serve our employees, business partners, and the communities where we live and work. We aim to achieve superior financial performance for shareholders and maximize the value of our assets while mitigating risk, and we are committed to managing our business in an environmentally responsible, socially responsible, and ethical manner.

To honor that commitment at the highest levels of the Company, our management team leads our ESG efforts. Our board of directors’ audit committee reviews these efforts.

Our ESG efforts are focused on:

Responsible Capital Deployment. We monitor ESG issues with our companies which we believe helps us generate stronger returns for our shareholders while improving our impact on society. Dun & Bradstreet is committed to enhancing responsible business practices through automated solutions. Alight is committed to helping companies care for their biggest asset, their people, by empowering workers and their families to make confident decisions around their health, wealth and wellbeing. The Restaurant Group is building inclusive workplaces while driving community outcomes in the areas where we operate. Our companies each have unique impacts, and we are working to further formalize and enhance the management of ESG across our companies.

Preserving the Environment. We recognize the importance of conducting business in an environmentally responsible manner and integrating responsibly designed environmental management practices into our operations. We are continually seeking to improve our environmental management practices at our Las Vegas headquarters. From efforts to reduce water consumption to participating in recycling programs, we are working to reduce our environmental impact.

Supporting Our Employees and Communities. We are dedicated to serving our employees and their families, building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and supporting our local communities. We value our talented workforce and the outstanding contributions our employees make each day. We are dedicated to attracting, developing, and retaining talented teams through competitive compensation and benefits, and building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We believe in the importance of volunteerism and philanthropy to strengthen and engage local communities across our companies. Through local community involvement, corporate initiatives, and philanthropic giving – as well as an active community volunteer ethos – we work hard each day to support the communities we all live in.

Operating Ethically. We are committed to strong governance systems and policies that are designed to ensure fair, transparent, and efficient business practices. Our reputation for integrity is one of our most important assets and each of our employees and directors is expected to contribute to the care and preservation of that asset. We operate in ways that we believe are fair, transparent, and compliant with all applicable regulations. We implement strong governance practices, policies, training, and reporting avenues to encourage and promote that all employees adhere to the highest standards for business integrity.

Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

The statements contained in this Annual Report or in our other documents or in oral presentations or other statements made by our management that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act") including statements regarding our expectations, hopes, intentions, or strategies regarding the future. These statements relate to, among other things, future financial and operating results of the Company. In many cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as"may," "will," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," or"continue," or the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these statements as a result of a number of factors, including, but not limited to the following:

•changes in general economic, business, and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets;

•compliance with extensive government regulation of our operating subsidiaries and adverse changes in applicable laws or regulations or in their application by regulators;

•the effects of our external management structure and the Management Services Agreement;

•loss of key personnel that could negatively affect our financial results and impair our operating abilities;

•our potential inability to find suitable acquisition candidates, as well as the risks associated with acquisitions in lines of business that will not necessarily be limited to our traditional areas of focus, or difficulties integrating acquisitions;

•other risks detailed in "Risk Factors" below and elsewhere in this document and in our other filings with the SEC.

We are not under any obligation (and expressly disclaim any such obligation) to update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You should carefully consider the possibility that actual results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements.

Additional Information

The Company’s Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to reports filed pursuant to Sections 13(a) and 15(d) of the Exchange Act, are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). The Company is subject to the informational requirements of the Exchange Act and files or furnishes reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. The SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at www.sec.gov.

Our website address iswww.cannaeholdings.com. We make available free of charge on or through our website our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. However, the information found on our website is not part of this or any other report.