Irving, Texas-based Caliber Home Loans, is acquiring Cobalt Mortgage, significantly expanding its sales force and nearly doubling the size of its branch retail lending business.

The agreement enhances Caliber’s geographic footprint into new markets, including the Pacific Northwest region.

Under the acquisition, Cobalt co-founders Keith Tibbles and Ernie Gehre will continue to lead the Cobalt Division of Caliber. 

In addition, Tibbles will also be appointed executive vice president of Caliber and assigned to the company's executive leadership committee where he will play an active role in the operations, financing, governance and strategic direction of Caliber.

Gehre will continue to oversee the sales organization of the Cobalt Division of Caliber.

"We are excited to partner with one of the strongest and most well-respected retail branch networks in the country. Throughout its long history of solid-performance, Cobalt has established an outstanding reputation for growing purchase volume and is well-respected for its disciplined approach to governance,” said Joe Anderson, CEO of Caliber.  

“Through this combination, we will also gain significant scale, granting us better access to the secondary markets. We are extremely confident in the benefits of this partnership and look forward to participating in the future success of the combined company," Tibbles and Gehre said.