SAP CFO Defends $8 Billion Qualtrics Buy, Saying Price Was Right
November 16 2018 - 9:21AM
Dow Jones News
By Patrick Costello
BARCELONA--SAP SE's (SAP.XE) Chief Financial Officer Luka Mucic
on Friday dismissed concerns that it paid too much for Qualtrics, a
U.S.-based startup that the German software company acquired just
days before a planned initial public offering.
Mr. Mucic defended the $8 billion pricetag of the market
analytics business as appropriate, saying the price is in line with
similar acquisitions in the tech sector given Qualtrics's revenue
multiples.
Qualtrics's canceled IPO was heavily oversubscribed and had been
expected to generate proceeds of $6 billion, the CFO said.
"If you look at what we paid, it's not that much of an uplift,"
Mr. Mucic said at Morgan Stanley's telecoms and technology
conference in Barcelona, Spain.
Mr. Mucic called the acquisition a "transformational strategic
opportunity" that justified SAP's about-face on eschewing
large-scale mergers and acquisitions, a position it has held for
years.
SAP still expects to expand margins and post "double-digit"
operating profit growth next year, even with the inclusion of
Qualtrics, Mr. Mucic said.
The company will give more explicit guidance after the
transaction with Qualtrics closes--likely early next year--and with
its fourth-quarter earnings, he said.
Write to Patrick Costello at patrick.costello@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 16, 2018 09:06 ET (14:06 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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