ORANGE COUNTY

Fidelity Seeks Offering: Fidelity National Financial Inc. is going to Wall Street for more money for acquisitions. The Irvine title insurance holding company said Tuesday that it is seeking approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell 850,000 shares of new common stock along with 900,000 shares of stock held by certain shareholders. It hopes to obtain $23 million to $26 million from the offering, though the price will be set by the market at the time of the sale. The company hopes to sell the stock within 30 days. Fidelity also will give the underwriters--Merrill Lynch & Co., Oppenheimer & Co. and Furman Selz Inc.--an option to buy an additional 262,000 shares of common stock. Last year, Fidelity acquired two companies and Northern California offices of a third as it more than doubled its size to more than $250 million in assets. It financed those acquisitions mainly from proceeds of a public offering that raised $10.6 million.