SAP buying Qualtrics for $8 billion

Daniel Roland | AFP | Getty Images

Bill McDermott, CEO of German software giant SAP, addresses the media during the company’s annual financial statement at it’s headquarters in Walldorf near Heidelberg, southern Germany, on January 24, 2017. 

SAP is acquiring Qualtrics for $8 billion, snapping up the survey software company just before its planned IPO.

The all-cash deal has been approved by the boards of both companies and by Qualtrics shareholders, SAP said in a statement on Sunday.

Qualtrics competes with SurveyMonkey, which went public in September. Qualtrics is bigger and growing faster than SurveyMonkey and is also more profitable. SAP has been struggling to find growth as the transition to cloud computing has taken business from its core enterprise resource planning business.

Qualtrics is the latest software company to get acquired just before its planned IPO. Cisco bought AppDynamics in 2017 right before its debut, and Workday bought Adaptive Insights earlier this year prior to an IPO.

J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. advised SAP on the deal. Qatalyst Partners, Frank Quattrone’s firm, advised Qualtrics even though Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were the listed lead banks for the IPO. Goldman and Morgan Stanley knew about the sale, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the discussions were private.

SAP is planning a conference call to discuss the acquisition at 6:15 pm ET.

This story is developing.