Yahoo Finance Software maker SAP to acquire US firm Qualtrics for $8bn
Europe's most valuable tech firm, software provider SAP, has bought survey company Qualtrics for $8bn (£6.2bn) in cash days before the US business was due to go public in an estimated $5bn float.
The deal gives SAP new weight in its cloud and user experience data. Founded in 2002, Qualtrics makes survey and research software for 9,000 enterprise customers.
SAP chief executive Bill McDermott said Qualtrics' upcoming listing was already oversubscribed. The company reported a small profit in its most recent filing of $1.5m with $290m in revenue.
Its biggest rival, Survey Monkey, went public in September valued at around $1.25bn, although Qualtrics has been growing faster and is more profitable.
It is just the latest acquisition for a legacy software company, after IBM snapped up open-source provider Red Hat for $34bn and Microsoft bought GitHub. Adobe, meanwhile, secured marketing software company Marketo for $4.75bn.
Big software companies are manoeuvring to stay ahead of developments in cloud software from fast-growing software start-ups. Mr McDermott said: "This is the No. 1 most transformative thing I’ve ever been involved in."
Qualtrics chief executive and founder Ryan Smith said the deal would put its software "everywhere overnight".
Qualtrics said it expected to use SAP's massive 15,000 strong sales force to put its software behind billions of global transactions.
SAP is Germany's largest software company, employing more than 88,000 people. SAP says it touches 77pc of global transactions with its software. The Walldorf-headquartered company's share price dipped 3pc on Monday morning.
The deal comes after SAP reported it had increased cloud revenues by 41pc for the quarter ending in September. Overall revenues were more than €6bn (£5.3bn). Like other stocks, SAP has been bruised in recent months by a global tech sell off.
