Conferences and occasions administration software program supplier Cvent is to be taken personal but once more, as a part of a $4.6 billion transaction involving two of the largest gamers within the personal fairness sphere.
At this time’s announcement continues a current pattern that has seen myriad corporations retreating from the general public markets, pushed by opportunistic personal fairness companies seeking to make a quick buck from nervous stockholders.
Dotcom survivor
Based manner again in 1999, Cvent could possibly be described as one thing of a Dotcom period survivor, elevating bucketloads of enterprise capital money forward of a bumper IPO in 2013 that valued the corporate at round $1.5 billion on its opening day. Three years later, Vista Fairness Companions swooped in with a $1.65 billion bid to take the corporate personal, earlier than returning to the general public markets by way of a particular buy acquisition firm (SPAC) a little bit greater than a 12 months in the past.
Within the intervening months, Cvent’s market cap has usually been on the descendancy, falling from its opening peak of round $4.7 billion to a median of round $2.5 billion for a lot of 2022.
Now, Vista Fairness Companions has mentioned that will probably be promoting all its remaining shares in Nasdaq-listed Cvent to Blackstone, although a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Funding Authority (ADIA) can even be a “vital minority investor.” Cvent mentioned that it expects the deal to shut in mid-2023, after which will probably be a privately-listed firm as soon as extra.
In the primary half of 2022, personal fairness companies spent almost $300 billion on such offers, some 39% larger than the corresponding interval from the earlier 12 months, with indicators these previous few months suggesting the same trajectory will proceed. Simply yesterday, expertise administration software program firm Qualtrics accepted a $12.5 billion all-cash provide from personal fairness agency Silver Lake and Canada Pension Plan Funding Board (CPP Investments), whereas information emerged in December that spend administration software program agency Coupa was set to go personal in a $8 billion deal spearheaded by Thoma Bravo.
Certainly, Thoma Bravo closed a brand new $32 billion buyout fund in December, which was adopted final week by Permira’s new $17.7 billion fund. Vista Fairness Companions, in the meantime, is reportedly midway towards elevating a brand new $20 billion fund.
Phrases of the Cvent deal will see its shareholders obtain round $8.50 per share, representing a premium of round 52% on the volume-weighted common worth (VWAP) within the three-month interval resulting in the top of January, when stories first surfaced that Cvent was the topic of a contemporary acquisition bid.
