Qualtrics has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by investment firm Silver Lake in partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
The deal is planned to be an all-cash transaction that values Qualtrics at approximately $12.5 billion.
According to the announcement, Silver Lake will acquire 100% of the outstanding shares that the firm does not already own, including the entirety of SAP’s majority ownership interest, making Qualtrics a privately-held company.
The agreement also states that Qualtrics shareholders, including SAP, will receive $18.15 per share in cash.
“I couldn’t be more excited for this step in our journey. 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,” said Ryan Smith, Qualtrics Founder and Executive Chairman.
Qualtrics CEO Zig Serafin will remain in his position, and the company will remain headquartered in Provo, Utah, and Seattle, Washington.
“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. 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,” said Zig Serafin, Chief Executive Officer at Qualtrics.
Egon Durban, Co-CEO of Silver Lake, said the deal marks 'a landmark transaction' for the investment firm as it reflects their confidence in Qualtrics' vision. He added:
“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.”
Previously, SAP bought Qualtrics for $8 billion in 2019, and less than two years after the acquisition, the company made Qualtrics public through an initial offering in the US.
This announcement comes just days after Qualtrics X4 Summit, where the company revealed a host of innovations along with Twilio and Five9 partnerships.
