Investors Buy Qualtrics and Take it Private

Experience management firm Qualtrics is to be acquired by tech investor Silver Lake, in partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), for around $12.5bn in cash; and will become an independent, privately held company.

The deal gives Silver Lake and its co-investors 100% of the company, including all the shares of current majority owner SAP, which acquired it for $8bn around four years ago. Since then SAP has sold a portion of the shares in an IPO which saw their price rise briefly to $30, valuing the company at $15.3bn. Prior to the new deal SAP owned 71% of Qualtrics.

Under the terms of the Silver Lake deal, shareholders will receive $18.15 per share in cash, a 73% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average price on January 25th this year, the last full day of trading before SAP announced it would explore the possibility of a sale. With approval already from Qualtrics' board and from SAP, no further shareholder nod is required, and the transaction is expected to close in the second half of this year subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Following the deal Qualtrics will continue to be led by CEO Zig Serafin (pictured), and its headquarters will remain in Provo, Utah and Seattle, Washington. Serafin comments: 'We are incredibly excited to partner with the team at Silver Lake, who deeply understand our business and will help us continue to build a high performing company, invest in our innovation and expand our ecosystem to help our customers succeed'. For Silver Lake, Co-CEO Egon Durban comments: 'We are strong believers in the amazing technology platform that Ryan [Smith, co-founder], Zig and their phenomenal engineering and sales teams are building, and we're thrilled to support the continued efficient growth of Qualtrics into a generational, highly profitable platform company by enabling further investment across all aspects of the business, including areas such as AI and other powerful new technologies'. He adds: 'This is a landmark transaction for Silver Lake, reflecting our confidence in the team and their vision. As they shape and continue to grow the next great enterprise software platform, they are the kind of leaders we have been most excited to partner with over many years of technology investing'. Christian Klein, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE says his firm 'intends to remain a close go-to-market and technology partner [of Qualtrics], servicing joint customers and continuing to contribute to its success'.

Web sites: www.qualtrics.com and www.silverlake.com .


The new ownership and valuation of Qualtrics, currently 17th by revenue in MrWeb's RAIDAR (Real-time Analytics, Insight and Data Activity Rankings) will be reflected in the table tomorrow - see www.mrweb.com/raidar .