Qualtrics International Inc. (Nasdaq: XM), a customer and employee experience company with dual headquarters in Seattle and Provo, Utah, is being acquired by private equity firm Silver Lake in partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), the companies announced Sunday.
Silver Lake and CPPIB are paying $18.15 cash per share, for a total price of about $12.5 billion. The companies expect the deal to close in the second half of this year, after which Qualtrics will no longer be publicly traded.
“I couldn’t be more excited for this step in our journey,” Ryan Smith, Qualtrics founder and executive chairman, said in a news release. “Silver Lake’s belief in our vision and their amazing track record of helping founders and management teams speaks for itself."
A Qualtrics spokesperson said the company has about 6,000 employees, including roughly 1,000 based in Seattle. The company isn't planning layoffs as a result of the acquisition.
Qualtrics, founded in 2002, collects and analyzes data to improve clients' customer and employee experience. Qualtrics finds pain points in user experience, for example a cumbersome step in downloading a new app. According to the company, Qualtrics has over 18,750 clients, including Samsung, Spotify and Toyota.
In 2018, SAP announced plans to acquire Qualtrics, just days before Qualtrics was set to go public. The $8 billion deal closed in January 2019. In January 2021, Qualtrics spun out and went public on the Nasdaq. SAP remains the majority shareholder in Qualtrics until the acquisition closes.
According to the release, the transaction share price is a 73% premium over the 30-day volume-weighted average price on Jan. 25, the last full trading day before SAP announced it was looking to sell its stake in Qualtrics.
Qualtrics CEO Zig Serafin will keep his role and the company will retain its dual headquarters. Qualtrics' board and a committee of independent directors have approved the deal, as has SAP, meaning no additional shareholder approval is needed. The deal still needs regulatory approval.
In its fourth quarter and full-year 2022 financial results, released in January, Qualtrics reported $389.1 million in revenue for the quarter, a 23% year-over-year increase. Qualtrics generated $1.46 billion in revenue for the year, up from $1.08 billion in 2021.
Silver Lake, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, has over $92 billion in assets under management. The firm has invested in Airbnb, GoodRX and SoFi.
“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,” Serafin said in a release.
