SAP is to take Qualtrics through an initial public offering in the US. In the last few months, Qualtrics has announced a continuous stream of customer wins and product enhancements. It has also performed above expectations following its acquisition by SAP.
SAP CEO Christian Klein commented: “SAP’s acquisition of Qualtrics has been a great success and has outperformed our expectations with 2019 cloud growth in excess of 40 percent, demonstrating very strong performance in the current setup. As Ryan Smith, Zig Serafin and I worked together, we decided that an IPO would provide the greatest opportunity for Qualtrics to grow the Experience Management category, serve its customers, explore its own acquisition strategy and continue building the best talent. SAP will remain Qualtrics’ largest and most important go-to-market and research and development (R&D) partner while giving Qualtrics greater independence to broaden its base by partnering and building out the entire experience management ecosystem.”
SAP intends to remain the majority shareholder in the newly public Qualtrics. Ironically, SAP stopped Qulatrics from going public in acquiring the company for $8 billion in 2019. This announced is a bit déjà vu for Qualtrics Founder Ryan Smith. Smith commented: “When we launched the Experience Management category, our goal was always to help as many organizations as possible leverage the XM Platform as a system of action. SAP is an incredible partner with unprecedented global reach, and we couldn’t be more excited about continuing the partnership. This will allow us to continue building out the XM ecosystem across a broad array of partners.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
This announcement shows that Qualtrics was an incredibly successful acquisition for SAP. It is not looking to sell the company. The IPO will enable Qualtrics to invest heavily in its own platform and grow internationally while remaining distinct from SAP. SAP did not announce timings for the IPO nor has any price been set yet. Will Qualtrics choose NYSE (as SAP uses) or the NASDAQ for its listing? An IPO will also enable SAP to invest heavily in Qualtrics growth without dipping further into its own war chest.
