Cvent goes private again in $4.6 billion deal with Blackstone

Meetings and event management software provider Cvent is to be taken private again, in a $4.6 billion deal involving two of the private equity industry’s biggest players.

Today’s announcement continues a recent trend that has seen a myriad of companies pull out of the public markets, pushed by opportunistic private equity firms looking to make a quick buck from jittery shareholders.

dotcom survivor

Founded in 1999, Cvent could be described as something of a survivor of the Dotcom era, raising tons of venture capital before a bumper 2013 IPO that valued the company at around $1.5 billion on the day. of its opening. Three years later, Vista Equity Partners launched a $1.65 billion bid to take the company private, before returning to the public markets through a special acquisition company (SPAC) just over a year ago. year.

In the months since, Cvent’s market capitalization has generally fallen from its opening peak of around $4.7 billion to an average of around $2.5 billion for much of 2022. .

Now Vista Equity Partners has announced it will sell all of its remaining shares in Nasdaq-listed Cvent to Blackstone, although a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is also a “significant minority investor”. Cvent said it expects the deal to close in mid-2023, after which it will return to being a publicly traded company.

In the first half of 2022, private equity firms spent nearly $300 billion on such deals, some 39% more than the corresponding period a year earlier, with signs in recent months suggesting a trajectory similar will continue. Just yesterday, experience management software company Qualtrics accepted a $12.5 billion all-cash offer from private equity firm Silver Lake and the United States Investment Board. Canada Pension Plan (CPP Investments), while news emerged in December that expense management software firm Coupa was set to go private in an $8 billion deal led by Thoma Bravo.

Indeed, Thoma Bravo closed a new $32 billion buyout fund in December, which was followed last week by Permira’s new $17.7 billion fund. Vista Equity Partners, meanwhile, is said to be halfway through raising a new $20 billion fund.

The terms of the Cvent deal will see its shareholders receive approximately $8.50 per share, representing a premium of approximately 52% over the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) in the three-month period preceding late January, when reports first surfaced. Cvent has been the subject of a new acquisition offer.