Silver Lake and CPP Investments to buy Qualtrics for $12.5 Billion

By Senad Karaahmetovic

Qualtrics (NASDAQ:) confirmed this morning that it has agreed to be acquired by Silver Lake and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments). The all-cash transaction is based on the price per share of $18.15 and values Qualtrics at roughly $12.5 billion.

The deal is financed by equity commitments from Silver Lake and co-investors, as well as with $1.75B in equity from CPP Investments and $1B in debt.

“I couldn’t be more excited for this step in our journey,” said Ryan Smith, Qualtrics Founder and Executive Chairman. “Silver Lake’s belief in our vision and their amazing track record of helping founders and management teams speaks for itself. We look forward to working together and driving category-defining growth to build the next great enterprise cloud platform.”

This price represents a 73% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average price on January 25, the last trading day prior to SAP’s announcement to explore a sale of its stake in Qualtrics. It also represents a 62% premium relative to the unaffected closing price on January 25.

“Silver Lake has both the operational expertise and the track record with software companies to help Qualtrics extend its leadership in the XM category it pioneered,” said Christian Klein, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE (ETR:).

Subject to the buyer closing the sale, Qualtrics will become an independent, privately-owned company.