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PROVO — Qualtrics' stock jumped 2% Monday after the Utah-born customer survey software company announced that it has received a $12.4 billion go-private offer from private equity firm Silver Lake Management and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
This would convert the Provo-born company, co-founded by Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, from a public company to private ownership. The offer values Qualtrics at $18.15 per share, a premium of nearly 6% to the stock's last closing price.
Silver Lake — which currently owns 4.2% of Qualtrics — first expressed interest in the company in early February, when it said it was considering a takeover of the SAP-backed company.
This came nearly a week after SAP announced plans to cut 3,000 jobs, or 2.5% of its global workforce and explore the sale of its remaining 71% stake in Qualtrics, according to Reuters.
In late 2018, Qualtrics was acquired for $8 billion by SAP, a German multinational software corporation, just days before a public stock offering was set to launch.
After the acquisition, SAP was criticized by some for what was perceived as overpaying, noting Qualtrics' pre-IPO valuation estimates were coming in around the $4.5 billion to $5 billion range.
However, this criticism didn't hold up as two years later, SAP offered shares of Qualtrics in an IPO that raised $1.5 billion in fresh capital on a valuation north of $15 billion.
Smith kept a stake in Qualtrics following the IPO and is reportedly the biggest individual shareholder while SAP retained a majority interest in the company.
This acquisition helped pave the way for Qualtrics to grow its national and international reach under SAP and it did so by opening an additional headquarters in Seattle.
Even after going big — or even bigger — Qualtrics and Smith didn't forget their roots. In 2019, they announced plans for expansion of the company's Utah County footprint that included doubling the size of its facilities and adding over 1,000 new employees.
Reuters has reported that shares of Qualtrics rose 2.8% in early trading since Silver Lake's buyout offer and 8.8% since the start of February when Silver Lake first expressed its interest in Qualtrics.
The company has agreed to negotiate exclusively with Silver Lake until March 15.
Qualtrics has yet to make a statement on the buyout offer and didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from KSL.
Contributing: Art Raymond
