Qualtrics, a survey software startup acquired by SAP for $8 billion, pops 51% on IPO debut; now valued at $27.3 billion

In October 2018, German software maker SAP acquired survey software maker startup Qualtrics for $8 billion. As we noted back then, the announcement came just before Qualtrics planned IPO. Qualtrics is a software maker that competes with SurveyMonkey in the survey software market. The company empowers companies to capture and act on customer, product, brand & employee experience insights in one place.

Almost two years after the acquisition, SAP said it was spinning off Qualtrics as a separate company. On Thursday, Qualtrics made its IPO debut on Wall Street after the company priced its IPO above the expected range.

The stock, trading under the ticker symbol “XM,” opened at $41.85 per share, representing a 40% pop. Qualtrics had priced its shares at $30 a piece, just above its target range of $27 to $29 per share. Within a couple of hours, Qualtrics sold about 51.7 million shares. The stocks later closed at $45.50, valuing Qualtrics at $27.3 billion.

Founded in 2002 by Jared Smith, Ryan Smith, and Stuart Orgill, Qualtrics is a software platform that helps organizations improve customer and employee experiences. The Qualtrics XM Platform is a system of action, used by teams, departments, and entire organizations to manage the four core experiences of business—customer, product, employee, and brand—on one platform.

Over 9,000 enterprises worldwide, including more than 75 percent of the Fortune 100 and 99 of the top 100 U.S. business schools, rely on Qualtrics to consistently build products that people love, create more loyal customers, develop a phenomenal employee culture, and build iconic brands. Qualtrics also takes advantage of the surging demand for high-growth cloud software companies amid the coronavirus pandemic.