By StreetInsider.com Staff
Shares of Qualtrics International Inc (NASDAQ:XM) are trading up 27% in early trading Thursday after SAP (NYSE:SAP) announced it has decided to explore a sale of its stake in Qualtrics.
"In line with SAP’s strategic initiative to streamline its portfolio, SAP has decided to explore a sale of its stake in Qualtrics," SAP said in a statement. "This would be a continuation of the strategy we set at the time of the Qualtrics IPO in 2021. SAP believes that this potential transaction could unlock significant value for both companies and their shareholders: for SAP, to focus more on its core cloud growth and profitability; for Qualtrics, to extend its leadership in the XM category that it pioneered."
SAP highlights that since the acquisition of the company in 2018, Qualtrics has increased revenue by 3.5x to ~ $1.5 billion while delivering profitability, and has significantly expanded its offerings and enterprise customer adoption.
SAP has retained Morgan Stanley as financial advisor to assist in exploring the sale of its stake in Qualtrics.
The news clearly has investors thinking that the stake sale could bring about a sale of the entire company.