SAP buys customer sentiment tracker Qualtrics for $8 bn
FRANKFURT: German business software company SAP buys Qualtrics International Inc for $8 billion in cash, pre-empting a planned stock market listing by the Us-based company that specialises in surveying consumers online.
The deal, backs SAP Chief Executive Bill Mcdermott’s expansion into Customer Relationship Management (CRM) from the company’s core business of helping firms run their finance, logistics and human resources. It is SAP’S largest acquisition since it bought travel and expense management firm Concur for $8.3 billion in 2014.
Qualtrics collects feedback and data on customers, employees, products and brands for 9,000 businesses worldwide, providing real-time insights that are vital in an increasingly digital world.
Mcdermott said that would give SAP an edge over competitors which still relied on crunching backwardlooking figures such as those for customer churn.
“The legacy players who carried their ‘90s technology into the 21st century just got clobbered,” he told reporters on a conference call.
Mcdermott said that once the deal closes SAP would achieve the fastest revenue growth of any company in the enterprise application software industry, where SAP’S competitors include Salesforce and Oracle Corp.
Top-line revenues would grow by double digits, while NON-IFRS operating income would outpace revenues, he said. The company will update its guidance after the deal closes, which is expected in the first half of 2019.
Qualtrics completes SAP’S software portfolio and increases its share in cloud-based subscription software, Mcdermott added.
For Qualtrics, the deal marks a dramatic outcome just days before the 16-year-old company was due to launch a smaller initial public offering. Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith, who owns about 40 per cent of the company with his brother and father, said that the IPO would have valued the company at least at $6 billion.
“We were going to be one day worth $20 billion or $30 billion, like a Servicenow Inc or a Workday Inc,” Smith said. “We were under no financial pressure to do anything.
Smith will stay on in the job and the company will retain its dual headquarters in Provo, Utah, and in Seattle. SAP sees an opportunity in combining its ‘operational’ data — the company says 77 per cent of the world’s transaction revenue touches one of its systems — with the ‘experience’ data the Qualtrics XM Platform gathers.
The two executives met a few months back and quickly struck up a friendship — Mcdermott said he showed up for lunch at Smith’s home in a suit and dress shoes, and the two ended up playing basketball in the yard.
Qualtrics collects feedback and data on customers, employees, products and brands for 9,000 businesses worldwide, providing real-time insights that are vital in an increasingly digital world.