Silver Lake, CPP Investments to acquire XM platform Qualtrics for $12.5bn

Private equity firm Silver Lake and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) will acquire Qualtrics, a cloud-native experience management (XM) software provider, for $12.5 billion in cash.

The transaction complements Qualtrics’ strategy of building the next great enterprise cloud software platform.

Post-closing, Qualtrics will become an independent, privately held company and will cease to trade on any stock exchange.

Under the agreement, Silver Lake and its co-investors, together with CPP Investments, will acquire all the outstanding shares that Silver Lake does not already own, including SAP’s majority stake, according to Qualtrics.

Zig Serafin — Qualtrics CEO said: “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.”

Silver Lake, CPP Investments to acquire XM platform Qualtrics for $12.5bn. Photo courtesy of Ben P L from Provo, USA/Wikimedia Commons.

With $1.75 billion in equity from CPP Investments and $1 billion in debt, the acquisition is entirely financed by equity commitments from Silver Lake and co-investors.

Christian Klein — SAP Executive Board Member and CEO said: “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.”

Qualtrics’s advanced artificial intelligence (AI) currently enables over 18,750 organizations globally to retain their customers and employees, protect their revenue, and drive profitability.

Qualtrics, which is co-headquartered in Provo, Utah and Seattle, operates out of 28 offices around the world.

The close of the deal is expected to occur in the second half of 2023, subject to requisite regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

In 2019, SAP acquired Qualtrics for $8 billion in cash and about two years later, the latter became public while the former retained majority ownership.