Qualtrics to be Acquired by Silver Lake and CPP Investments for $12.5 Billion

By Business Wire On Mar 13, 2023

***Qualtrics shareholders to receive $18.15 per share in cash,* *a 73% premium to 30-day unaffected VWAP***

Qualtrics, the leader and pioneer of the experience management (XM) software category, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing, in partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), in an all-cash transaction that values Qualtrics at approximately $12.5 billion.

Silver Lake and its co-investors, together with CPP Investments, will acquire 100% of the outstanding shares Silver Lake does not already own, including the entirety of SAP’s majority ownership interest. Qualtrics will become an independent, privately held company positioned to drive category-defining innovation and efficient growth at scale on its path to becoming the next great enterprise cloud software platform.

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Under the terms of the agreement, Qualtrics shareholders, including SAP, will receive $18.15 per share in cash. This represents a 73% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average price on January 25, 2023, the last full trading day prior to SAP’s announcement to explore a sale of its stake in Qualtrics, and a 62% premium relative to the unaffected closing price on January 25, 2023.

Qualtrics will continue to be led by Chief Executive Officer Zig Serafin, and the company will remain headquartered in Provo, Utah and Seattle, Washington.

“I couldn’t be more excited for this step in our journey,” said Ryan Smith, Qualtrics Founder and Executive Chairman. “Silver Lake’s belief in our vision and their amazing track record of helping founders and management teams speaks for itself. We look forward to working together and driving category-defining growth to build the next great enterprise cloud platform.”

“Qualtrics is becoming central to how businesses make mission critical customer and employee decisions that increase revenue and operational efficiency. With our AI-powered platform and automated actions, we help companies deliver exceptional experiences and build deep relationships with their customers and employees at scale,” said Zig Serafin, Chief Executive Officer at Qualtrics. “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.”

“We are strong believers in the amazing technology platform that Ryan, 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,” said Egon Durban, Co-CEO of Silver Lake. “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.”

“Silver Lake has both the operational expertise and the track record with software companies to help Qualtrics extend its leadership in the XM category it pioneered,” said Christian Klein, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. “Since we acquired Qualtrics in 2019 the company has more than tripled its revenue while delivering profitability. SAP intends to remain a close go-to-market and technology partner, servicing joint customers and continuing to contribute to Qualtrics’s success. The number of companies and brands using Qualtrics software has risen from 10,000 at the time of SAP’s purchase to over 18,000 today.”

“We would like to thank SAP for their stewardship of Qualtrics over the past four years,” said Kyle Paster, Managing Director at Silver Lake. “We are pleased to be joined by a high quality investor and bank group in supporting Ryan, Zig and the rest of the Qualtrics team with a low leverage capital structure designed to fuel the company’s next stage of growth, broadening the power of the Qualtrics technology platform.”

“This is a unique opportunity to invest in a category creator led by a strong management team that is shaping a rapidly growing market,” said Hafiz Lalani, Managing Director and Head of Direct Private Equity at CPP Investments. “We look forward to supporting the team in driving continued innovation as they help clients re-define their customer and employee experiences around the world.”

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