OC INSIDER—Title Bout: Execs at First American, Fidelity Switch Sides

It’s getting downright nasty between OC-based giants

Fidelity National

and

First American

, the nation’s largest and second-largest title insurers, respectively. Two months ago industry legend

Bob Duff

left First American after 40 years to join Fidelity. First American was the only company Duff had ever worked for; he began as a clerk posting deed records with a fountain pen. He became the confidant of builders, growing the then-

Orange County Title Co.’s

subdivision department from a one-county operation to the national leader. Some years, Duff said, 80% of the builder business in Orange County and half the builder business in the state went through his office. But Duff said things began souring when

Don


Parker Kennedy

brought in new management a year and a half ago. So, Duff said, he was receptive when Fidelity chief

Bill Foley

put out feelers to him a few months back. Duff, who was senior VP of national builder development at First American, has no formal title with Fidelity’s national builder developer services division: “I’m a dealmaker, and I fix things.” Duff’s new division prez,

Don DuBois

, crowed, “Now Fidelity National Title is the team to beat.” First American didn’t wait long, or look far, to strike back. A month after Duff switched, it lured one of Fidelity’s own execs,

Joe Tavarez

, to become senior VP of national subdivision and assume many of Duff’s duties. Duff said the old clients have started following him over,”more in the first nine weeks than I thought there would be in a year.” He looks like a winner either way: “I’m a fairly large shareholder there (at First American). They pay me a lot of money every month” The Republicans had barely vacated the

Philadelphia Convention Center

when Newport Beach coin dealer

Sil DiGenova

moved in last week. He was at the “World’s Fair of Money” asking $1.5 million for the 1907 Ultra High Relief Proof $20 gold coin that he bought at auction last year for a record $1.2 million. “There’s no confetti left but we are getting some residual Republicans,” DiGenova said via phone. His

Tangible Asset Galleries

, with more than $20 million in annual sales, recently acquired Bay Area e-tailer

Gavelnet.com

and is trying to raise $15 million through Houston, Texas, VCer

Benchmark Merchant Partners

. DiGenova maintained that the stock, languishing below $1 a share, is a bargain: “If you can’t afford the coin, you can afford the company.”