Liberté Investors
The defunct Dallas holding company — NYSE-listed as LBI, chaired by Gerald J. Ford — that acquired USAuto Holdings in 2004 and renamed itself First Acceptance Corporation, the Nashville non-standard auto insurer.
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- Location
- 200 Crescent Court, Suite 1365, Dallas, Texas 75201, United States
- Country
- United States
- Legal name (former)
- Liberté Investors, Inc. (Delaware corporation)
- Traded
- NYSE: LBI
- Headquarters
- 200 Crescent Court, Suite 1365, Dallas, Texas 75201
- Chairman / major stockholder
- Gerald J. Ford (~45%)
- Industry classification
- Holding company
- Defining event
- Acquired USAuto Holdings, Inc. (announced December 15, 2003)
- Successor name
- First Acceptance Corporation (renamed upon closing)
- Successor headquarters
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Financial advisor on the USAuto deal
- Morgan Joseph & Co. Inc. (fairness opinion)
Overview
Liberté Investors, Inc. was a Dallas-based holding company — a Delaware corporation headquartered at 200 Crescent Court, Suite 1365, Dallas, Texas, its stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker LBI — chaired by banker Gerald J. Ford, who owned about 45% of it (SEC; SEC). The company matters for exactly one reason: on December 15, 2003, it announced a definitive agreement to acquire USAuto Holdings, a Tennessee-based non-standard auto insurer, and on closing it renamed itself First Acceptance Corporation and moved to Nashville, Tennessee — the insurer profiled on this site (SEC). There is no plain-language profile of Liberté Investors anywhere else; every competing result is a filing fragment.
The $76 million merger
The December 15, 2003 announcement is the whole story in one document. Liberté would acquire 100% of USAuto’s stock for $76 million in cash plus 13.25 million newly issued Liberté shares, with up to 750,000 more shares payable if USAuto hit 2004 operating targets; “Gerald J. Ford, Liberté’s Chairman and 45% stockholder, has agreed to vote his shares in favor of the acquisition” (SEC). Morgan Joseph & Co. served as Liberté’s financial advisor and rendered a fairness opinion to its board (SEC). The cash portion was to be funded partly through a $50 million rights offering to existing stockholders, filed the same day (SEC). Antitrust clearance came fast: the FTC granted early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period on January 2, 2004 (FTC).
The closing carried a wholesale changing of the guard. Liberté would change its name to First Acceptance Corporation and relocate its headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee; USAuto CEO Stephen J. Harrison would replace Donald J. Edwards as chief executive; USAuto COO Thomas M. Harrison would become executive vice president; Ford would remain chairman; and Edwards would stay on as a director under a four-year advisory agreement (SEC). The transaction behind today’s First Acceptance Corporation — and, two corporate lifetimes later, its April 2018 voluntary delisting from the NYSE (NYSE: FAC) to trade over the counter as FACO — starts here (First Acceptance).
Frequently asked questions
What was Liberté Investors? A Dallas-based holding company (Delaware corporation, NYSE: LBI), chaired by Gerald J. Ford, which in 2003–04 acquired USAuto Holdings and renamed itself First Acceptance Corporation.
What did Liberté Investors pay for USAuto? $76 million in cash plus 13.25 million newly issued Liberté shares, with up to 750,000 additional shares tied to USAuto’s 2004 operating performance.
What happened to Liberté Investors after the merger? It ceased to exist under that name: on closing it became First Acceptance Corporation and moved its headquarters from Dallas to Nashville, Tennessee.
Is Liberté Investors related to the French “Liberté” brands? No. The name collides in search results with French retail, fashion, and other “Liberté” entities; this was a Texas holding company identified by its NYSE ticker LBI and Dallas address.
What this profile does not claim
This profile does not describe Liberté’s pre-2003 operations — what the holding company held before acquiring USAuto was not verified. It does not assert an exact merger closing date; a late-April 2004 closing is consistent with the filings but not confirmed from a fully-read source. It does not state the $4.00-per-share rights-offering price or backstop terms, which were not verified from a fully-read source. It does not speculate on Ford’s motives. And it notes the sourcing limit openly: no independent press coverage of the 2003 announcement was found, so the profile rests on primary SEC and FTC records.
Timeline
- 2003-12-15
- Liberté announces a definitive merger agreement to acquire USAuto Holdings for $76 million in cash plus 13.25 million newly issued Liberté shares; Morgan Joseph & Co. renders a fairness opinion; the plan calls for renaming the company First Acceptance Corporation and moving its headquarters to Nashville.
- 2003-12-15
- Liberté files for a $50 million rights offering to partially fund the USAuto acquisition.
- 2004-01-02
- The FTC grants early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period (transaction 20040325).
- 2004
- The merger closes; Liberté becomes First Acceptance Corporation of Nashville, Tennessee, with USAuto's Stephen J. Harrison as CEO and Thomas M. Harrison as executive vice president, and Gerald J. Ford remaining chairman.
- 2018-04-09
- First Acceptance Corporation voluntarily delists from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: FAC) and moves to the OTC market as FACO.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- No independent press coverage of the December 2003 merger announcement or the 2004 closing was found after targeted searches (Dallas/Nashville business press, insurance trade press); the profile rests on primary records.
- The exact closing date of the merger was not verified from a fully-read source; a Registration Rights Agreement dated April 30, 2004 (seen via a filing mirror) is consistent with a late-April 2004 closing but is not asserted as the closing date.
- The $4.00-per-share rights-offering price and the backstop arrangement (seen in an S-1/A summary) were not verified from a fully-read source and are not stated; only the $50 million offering itself (per the 8-K) is stated.
- Liberté's pre-2003 operations — what the holding company held before acquiring USAuto — were not verified and are not described.
Sources
4 sources (3 tier 1, 1 first-party), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Statements the subject makes about itself are marked as such and are not treated as independent evidence. See the source policy.
Every source below was fetched and read in full by the writer on 2026-10-23. The company's identity and the merger: Liberté's own December 15, 2003 Form 8-K and its Exhibit 99.1 merger-announcement press release (tier1 SEC records; the exhibit is a filed company announcement used only for uncontested deal facts). Antitrust clearance: the FTC's early-termination notice (tier1). The 2018 NYSE delisting: the company's own announcement via GlobeNewswire (first-party, used only for the delisting date and terms). No independent press coverage of the 2003 announcement was found; that absence is stated as an open item, not filled by speculation.
- Supports: Liberté Investors Inc. as a Delaware corporation (Commission File No. 1-6802) headquartered at 200 Crescent Court, Suite 1365, Dallas, Texas; the December 15, 2003 definitive merger agreement to acquire USAuto Holdings; and the $50 million rights offering filed to partially fund the acquisition. Open original source
- Supports: NYSE: LBI listing; the $76M cash + 13.25M share terms (plus up to 750,000 earnout shares); Gerald J. Ford as chairman and 45% stockholder agreeing to vote for the deal; Morgan Joseph & Co. as financial advisor with a fairness opinion; the planned rename to First Acceptance Corporation and Nashville relocation; and the leadership handoff (Stephen J. Harrison as CEO, Thomas M. Harrison as EVP, Ford remaining chairman, Donald J. Edwards remaining a director with a four-year advisory agreement). Open original source
- Supports: Early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period (granted January 2, 2004) for Liberté Investors' acquisition of USAuto Holdings. Open original source
- First Acceptance Corporation Announces Intent to Voluntarily Delist from the New York Stock Exchange First-partySupports: The voluntary NYSE delisting (NYSE: FAC) — notice submitted March 2018, Form 25 on/about March 29, 2018, delisting effective on/about April 9, 2018, with the stock to trade through the OTC market. Used only for these uncontested facts; corrects the record that the delisting was from the NYSE, not Nasdaq. Open original source
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