SAP appears to be finding a buyer for its Qualtrics subsidiary. A takeover bid worth $12.4 billion is on the table.

Qualtrics submitted the takeover bid to the US Securities and Exchange Commission to get the green light. The buyer is private equity firm Silver Lake, which is enlisting help from Canada’s pension savings fund to fund the acquisition.

Although investment companies normally play for luck, there is a substantial takeover bid of USD 12.4 billion on the table. That’s more than seventy percent more than Qualtrics’ estimated market value. Two other anonymous takeover bids have reportedly been submitted, but it seems Silver Lake has the best credentials.

JUICE

Qualtrics is still mostly owned by the German SAP. The company specializing in “Experience Management” took over in 2018, when Qualtrics seemed to be becoming a rising star in the business ICT landscape. There was no good match between the two parties and SAP took Qualtrics public in 2021 to sell some shares.

Today, SAP still owns 70 percent of the shares. After a disappointing final quarter of 2022, in which both revenue and net income fell short of expectations, SAP decided in late January that the time had come to sell Qualtrics. A buyer seems to have been found quickly. It is now a matter of time before the deal can be finalized.