SAP announced its intent to take Qualtrics public through an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States. Qualtrics’ focus is on experience management, and SAP intends to remain the majority owner of Qualtrics. SAP’s primary objective for the IPO is to fortify Qualtrics’ ability to capture its full market potential in the market for experience management solutions. This will help to increase Qualtrics’ autonomy and enable it to expand its footprint both within SAP’s customer base and beyond. Qualtrics, which is part of SAP’s cloud portfolio, has operated with greater autonomy than other companies SAP had previously acquired. The founder, Ryan Smith, the and current management team of Qualtrics will continue to operate the company. Ryan Smith intends to be Qualtrics’ largest individual shareholder.
SAP agreed to acquire Qualtrics just four days before Qualtrics was to go public in 2018, recognizing the potential of bringing together experience and operational data to help organizations take action. SAP is committed to experience management and the Qualtrics XM Platform as a key element of its Intelligent Enterprise Strategy. SAP will remain a close innovation and go-to-market Qualtrics partner. A final decision on the IPO and its timing is pending and subject to market conditions. Since SAP, as majority shareholder, will continue to fully consolidate Qualtrics, the transaction is not expected to have an impact on SAP’s 2020 or longer-term financial targets.
https://www.qualtrics.com/news/sap-announces-intent-to-take-qualtrics-public/