SAP Unit Qualtrics Heads for IPO

Qualtrics, based in Provo, Utah, in a regulatory filing Monday, set an initial price range of $ 20 to $ 24, which would value the company on a completely diluted basis between $ 12 and $ 14.4. billions of dollars, according to a person familiar with the problem. Prices may change based on investor feedback up to one day before a company’s shares begin trading.

SAP CEO Christian Klein said in July that the company would make Qualtrics public while remaining the majority shareholder. The agreement, he said, will allow Qualtrics to better pursue non-SAP business opportunities.

Qualtrics shares will be traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol “XM”. SAP will retain a controlling stake in Qualtrics after the planned IPO, including all Class B shares of the company that give it additional voting rights.

The listing comes amid a tumultuous period for the German technology company, partly caused by the pandemic. In April, SAP abandoned its dual-chief executive structure less than six months after adopting the leadership model. He said the measure was aimed at speeding up decision-making during the health crisis, after the company discontinued its guidelines throughout the year. In October, the German-based Walldorf company lowered its outlook again as coronavirus cases began to rise again.

SAP’s acquisition of Qualtrics, which ended in 2019, helped the company improve its competitiveness in the cloud computing market, SAP said. Shares of companies that offer cloud services, such as Snowflake Inc.

and ServiceNow Inc.,

led by former SAP CEO Bill McDermott, they grew during the pandemic as more companies embraced such services. SAP shares fell 12.5% ​​this year.

In its presentation, Qualtrics said Silver Lake will acquire $ 550 million of its shares, including 15 million shares at $ 21.64 per share and the rest at the IPO price as part of the offer. Silver Lake earlier this year offered Airbnb funding, which hit the pandemic Inc.

with mandates that, when exercised, would value the company at $ 18 billion. Airbnb was valued at $ 47 billion on a completely diluted IPO basis when it debuted in December. The price of his shares has doubled since he started.

Qualtrics, in the regulatory filing, said sales this year through the end of September rose to $ 415 million, up from $ 309 million from the previous period. It posted a net loss of $ 258 million in the first nine months, compared to a loss of $ 860.4 million in the same period last year.

Qualtrics said it has more than 12,000 customers and more than 3,300 employees in more than 25 countries. The company was founded in 2002 by Ryan Smith, who served as executive director until this summer and remains the company’s president. Zig Serafin, formerly of Microsoft Body.

executive, took over as CEO in July.

The planned IPO helps cap a year in which tech companies have seen their ratings rise to the highest levels of the dot-com balloon since the early 2000s. Airbnb is now valued at about $ 93 billion, much more than traditional accommodation companies such as Marriott International Inc.

or Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.

Snowflake Inc., a data storage company that began trading in September, is worth more than 180 times the $ 89 million in revenue earned in 12 months through October.

Write to Matt Grossman at [email protected] and Maureen Farrell at [email protected]