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Qualtrics

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Qualtrics International Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryExperience management
Founded2002; 22 years ago (2002)
Founders
Headquarters
Key people
Ryan Smith (Executive Chairman)[1]
Zig Serafin (CEO)
Chris Beckstead (President)
ProductsQualtrics XM Platform, Design XM, Customer XM, Employee XM, Product XM, Brand XM, XM Services
RevenueIncrease US$1.46 billion (2022)
Increase US$−1.05 billion (2022)
Decrease US$−1.06 billion (2022)
Total assetsDecrease US$3.39 billion (2022)
Total equityDecrease US$1.90 billion (2022)
OwnerSilver Lake
Number of employees
c. 5,600 (December 2022)
Websitequaltrics.com
Footnotes / references
[2][3]

Qualtrics is an American experience management company, with co-headquarters in Seattle, Washington, and Provo, Utah, in the United States. The company was founded in 2002 by Scott M. Smith, Ryan Smith, Jared Smith, and Stuart Orgill.[4]

Qualtrics offers a cloud-based subscription software platform for experience management,[5] which it launched in March 2017.[6]

On November 11, 2018, it was announced that Qualtrics would be acquired by SAP for US$8 billion.[7] The acquisition was completed on January 23, 2019.[8] On July 26, 2020, SAP announced its intent to take Qualtrics public,[9] and on January 28, 2021, Qualtrics began trading on the Nasdaq.[10] In March 2023, an investor group led by the private equity firm Silver Lake agreed to take Qualtrics private. On June 28, 2023, it was announced that Silver Lake and its co-investors, together with CPP Investments, acquired 100% of the outstanding shares in Qualtrics that Silver Lake did not already own, including the entirety of SAP’s majority ownership interest.[11]

History

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Funding and valuation

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In 2012, the company received a $70 million Series A investment from Sequoia Capital and Accel,[12][13] It was the largest joint investment to date by these two firms.[14] In September 2014, the two firms returned to Series B funding, led by Insight Partners worth $150 million, a record for a Utah-based company, and valuing the company at $1 billion.[15]

Filing for IPO

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On October 19, 2018, Qualtrics filed their S-1 registration statement with the intention of raising gross proceeds of $200 million through an initial public offering (IPO) of its Class B shares.[16] At the time, the company listed 9,000 global customers. The company was meant to be listed on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker "XM" in reference to their flagship experience management product, the Qualtrics XM Platform.

Plans for the IPO were scrapped when it was announced in November 2018 that Qualtrics would be acquired by SAP (NYSE: SAP).

Acquisitions

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In May 2016, Qualtrics acquired statistical analysis startup Statwing for an undisclosed sum. Statwing was a San Francisco-based company that created point-and-click software for advanced statistical analysis.[17][18]

In April 2018 the firm acquired Delighted for an undisclosed sum. Delighted had more than 1,500 customers at the time of acquisition.[19]

In October 2021 the firm acquired Clarabridge in an all-stock deal for $1.125 billion. Clarabridge was a Virginia-based company that created software for omnichannel conversational analytics.[20][21]

Acquisition by SAP SE

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In November 2018, SAP announced its intent to acquire Qualtrics. SAP acquired all outstanding shares of Qualtrics for US$8 billion in an all cash deal. SAP secured €7 billion in financing.[22] At the time it was announced, the Qualtrics acquisition was SAP's second-biggest purchase ever, behind the $8.3 billion acquisition of travel and expense management firm Concur in 2014.[23] The acquisition was formally closed January 23, 2019.[24]

Initial public offering (IPO)

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On 26 July 2020, SAP announced its intent to take Qualtrics public through an IPO in the United States. According to SAP, the decision to go public was made due to Qualtrics's performance since the acquisition, with 2019 cloud growth in excess of 40 percent. SAP's stated intent was to remain the majority shareholder. While acknowledging that the spinoff made financial sense due to market conditions, Patrick Moorhead, founder and principal analyst at Moor Insight & Strategy, felt there was also a corporate culture clash. In his view, SAP couldn't find a way to co-exist with the younger, more nimble Qualtrics.[25][26] On January 28, 2021, Qualtrics began trading on the Nasdaq at $41.85 per share.[10] After reaching an intraday high a week later above $57, the stock settled into a trading range from approximately $30 to $40 for the remainder of the first half of 2021. As of June, 2022, the stock had fallen as low as $12.71 and generally hovered around $13.25.

On January 11, 2021, technical trade media noted that Brad Anderson, a high level executive of Microsoft, was leaving for Qualtrics.[27]

In May 2022, Qualtrics announced that they would go live on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure in London in the second half of 2022. Qualtrics customers would be able to access Qualtrics XM/OS platform locally via AWS London region. Furthermore, Qualtrics announced that they would be opening a London office and customer experience centre.[28]

Divestment by SAP SE

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In March 2023, a group of investors including private equity firm Silver Lake, CPP Investment Board, and co-founder Ryan Smith agreed to buy Qualtrics from SAP in an all-cash deal worth $12.5 billion.[29]

Silver Lake acquisition

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Silver Lake first invested more than $500m in Qualtrics during the company's IPO in 2021.[30] In March 2023, it was announced that Silver Lake agreed to take Qualtrics private. In June 2023, the Qualtrics acquisition by Silver Lake was completed. At the time of the close, the Qualtrics deal was the single largest investment in Silver Lake's near quarter-century history.[31]

In connection with the close, Accel, a global venture capital firm, as well as BDT & MSD Partners, a merchant bank built to serve the distinct needs of business owners and strategic, long-term investors; and DFO Management, the family investment office of Michael Dell, joined Silver Lake in investing in Qualtrics. Accel, which was one of Qualtrics’s earliest investors, invested $500 million. BDT & MSD Partners and DFO Management each made a co-investment of $250 million, for an aggregate commitment of $500 million.[32]

After the acquisition, in October of 2023, the workforce was reduced by 15%.

Business Practices

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Auto Renewing Contracts

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Qualtrics software contracts auto-renew with a 5% price increase. Customers who have stopped using the product are still pursued by the company and this practice has attracted complaints with the Better Business Bureau[33][34]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Martin, Scott (August 27, 2012). "Customer research easier in digital era". USA Today. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
  2. ^ "Qualtrics 2022 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 24 February 2023.
  3. ^ "Qualtrics 2022 Proxy Statement (DEF 14A)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 15 April 2022.
  4. ^ Chapman, Lizette (15 May 2012). "Qualtrics Taps Accel, Sequoia For First-Ever VC Round". The Wall Street Journal.
  5. ^ "Qualtrics XM - Experience Management Software". Qualtrics. Retrieved 2020-12-28.
  6. ^ Rogers, Bruce. "Ryan Smith's Qualtrics Capitalizes On The Rise Of The 'Experience Economy'". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-12-28.
  7. ^ "XO Data Press Release". Archived from the original on 2019-04-17. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  8. ^ "SAP Completes Qualtrics Acquisition". SAP News Center. 2019-01-23. Archived from the original on 2022-02-19. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
  9. ^ "SAP Announces Intent to Take Qualtrics Public | Qualtrics IPO | SAP News". SAP News Center. 2020-07-26. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  10. ^ a b Bursztynsky, Jessica; Levy, Ari (28 January 2021). "Qualtrics closes up 51% after debut, valuing cloud software vendor at $27.3 billion". CNBC. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  11. ^ "SAP Completes Sale of Its Stake in Qualtrics as Silver Lake and CPP Investments Complete Qualtrics Acquisition" (Press release).
  12. ^ "Venture Capital Power Rankings: VCs Rate VCs". CB Insights Research. 7 April 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  13. ^ "The Top 10 VC Firms, According To InvestorRank". 25 May 2011. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  14. ^ Anthony Ha (15 May 2012). "Qualtrics Raises $70M From Accel And Sequoia: "The Biggest Software Company You Haven't Heard Of"?". TechCrunch. AOL.
  15. ^ Joshua Brustein (24 September 2014). "How Qualtrics Turned Online Surveys Into a $1 Billion Business - Businessweek". Businessweek.com. Archived from the original on September 25, 2014.
  16. ^ "Qualtrics International Inc. Form S-1 Registration Statement Under the Securities Act of 1933". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. October 19, 2018.
  17. ^ "Daily Research News Online no. 22721 - Qualtrics Buys Software Firm Statwing". www.mrweb.com. Retrieved 2016-06-29.
  18. ^ "Qualtrics Acquires Y Combinator-Funded Startup Statwing, Making Data Science Easy for Anyone". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on 25 June 2016.
  19. ^ "Qualtrics Inches Closer To IPO By Acquiring The Startup Behind Ratings For Postmates And Uber". www.forbes.com. Retrieved 2018-04-12.
  20. ^ "Qualtrics Completes Acquisition of Clarabridge". Retrieved 2021-10-01.
  21. ^ "Qualtrics' $1.125B Acquisition Of Clarabridge Upends The Customer Feedback Management Market". 30 July 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  22. ^ "SAP SE to Acquire Qualtrics International Inc., Sees Experience Management as the Future of Business - XOdata.com". XOdata.com. 2018-11-11. Archived from the original on 2019-04-17. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
  23. ^ Sherman, Alex (2018-11-11). "SAP is acquiring survey software maker Qualtrics for $8 billion". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
  24. ^ "SAP Completes Qualtrics Acquisition". SAP News Center. 2019-01-23. Archived from the original on 2022-02-19. Retrieved 2019-06-04.
  25. ^ "SAP Announces Intent to Take Qualtrics Public | Qualtrics IPO | SAP News". SAP News Center. July 26, 2020.
  26. ^ "SAP decision to spin out Qualtrics 20 months after spending $8B surprises industry watchers". TechCrunch. 28 July 2020. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  27. ^ Foley, Mary Jo, Corporate Vice President Brad Anderson is leaving Microsoft for Qualtrics, Zdnet, January 11, 2021
  28. ^ "Qualtrics UK customers will be able to access the Qualtrics XM/OS platform locally via data centre in the AWS London Region". Business Wire. 12 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  29. ^ Gara, Antoine (13 March 2023). "Silver Lake set to take over software company Qualtrics in $12.5bn deal". Financial Times.
  30. ^ "Qualtrics". Silver Lake.com.
  31. ^ "Qualtrics to be Acquired by Silver Lake and CPP Investments for $12.5 Billion". Qualtrics.com.
  32. ^ "Accel Invests in Qualtrics Alongside Silver Lake and CPP Investments" (Press release). 28 June 2023.
  33. ^ "Qualtrics LLC". Better Business Bureau. 29 October 2024.
  34. ^ "Qualtrics Service Contract". Qualtrics.com. 29 October 2024.
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