Qualtrics, a survey startup SAP acquired in 2018 for $8 billion, receives a $12.4 billion buyout offer from Silver Lake and Canada’s CPPIB
Nickie Louise
Posted On March 6, 2023
In January, we wrote about Qualtrics after the company’s owner SAP announced it was laying off 3,000 employees, or about 2.5% of its workforce. At the time, the German enterprise software giant also said it was exploring the sale of its stake in US-based survey software maker Qualtrics as part of a restructuring effort, which it acquired in November 2018 for $8 billion.
Just two months later, Qualtrics said on Monday it has received a $12.4 billion go-private offer from private equity firm Silver Lake Management and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Reuters reported.
The new offer values Qualtrics at $18.15 per share. Qualtrics has gained over 8 percent in value since the start of February when Silver Lake first expressed interest in buying the survey software maker. SAP is a majority investor in Qualtrics with a 71% stake while Silver Lake holds a nearly 4.2% stake. SAP bought Qualtrics in 2019 for $8 billion from founder Ryan Smith.
We wrote about Qualtrics four years ago after the company was acquired for $8 billion in an all-cash deal. The announcement came just before Qualtrics planned IPO.
Qualtrics is a software maker which competes with SurveyMonkey in the survey software market. Qualtrics is a competitor of SurveyMonkey. However, Qualtrics has a much richer feature set than SurveyMonkey. Qualtrics has grown faster over the years and is also more profitable.
Qualtrics was originally founded in 2002 by Jared Smith, Ryan Smith, and Stuart Orgill. The company provides a technology platform that organizations use to collect, manage, and act on experience data, also called X-data. 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.
