German software developer SAP announced the sale of all its shares in the American company Qualtrics International. The buyers are funds affiliated with the investment company Silver Lake, as well as CPP Investments (Pension Fund Investment Board of Canada).
As part of the deal, the funds will purchase 423 million Qualtrics shares from SAP for $18.15 each. This is 62% higher than their value at the close of trading on January 25 – on the eve of SAP’s announcement of its intention to sell Qualtrics. The purchase of all shares will cost Silver Lake and CPP $7.7 billion, after which the funds will become the majority shareholders of the American enterprise software developer. At the same time, Silver Lake already owns 4.1% of the share capital of Qualtrics. The cost of Qualtrics itself, based on an assessment within the framework of the transaction, amounted to about $12.5 billion.
Qualtrics develops customer experience management software. The company was founded in 2002 and was acquired by SAP in January 2019 for $8 billion.
spruce grew up. And in January 2021, SAP held an IPO of a subsidiary on NASDAQ, and its shares were placed at a price of $41.85. However, 2022 was a very unfortunate year for the technology sector, and by the end of the year, many companies began to announce massive layoffs. This trend continued in the IT-sphere and at the beginning of this year. SAP was no exception and announced at the end of January its intention to cut about 3,000 jobs. As for Qualtrics, its shares, following the results of trading last Friday, March 10, cost $16.55, which is 60.5% below the IPO level.