Cvent, the software-as-a-service provider of technology for managing meetings and events, will be acquired by affiliates of Vista Equity Partners, a private-equity firm.
The all-cash deal for all of the outstanding shares of Cvent common stock — for a total value of approximately $1.65 billion — represents a premium of about 69% over Cvent's closing price on April 15.
The substantial deal is a U-turn from 17-year-old Cvent's situation during the 2001 tech crash, when it grew too fast for its own good. A transformation under CEO Reggie Aggarwal led to the company going public in 2013, raising $135 million along the way.
Today Cvent, based in Tysons Corner, Virginia, has 16,000 customers and 2,000 employees worldwide. It aims to become the equivalent of Expedia Inc for the meetings business. Its tools help companies manage attendee marketing, online registrations, venue selection, and back-end reporting, among other services.
In recent quarters the company has reported record growth in revenue. But the cost of digesting acquisitions and investing in technology was holding down profits.
Since 2012, buyout specialist Vista has acquired other technology providers to the meetings, incentives, conferencing, and events (MICE) sector, including Lanyon, based in Dallas (which claims to generate billions in request for proposal value annually) and GenieConnect, a British company that specializes in mobile technology.
In 2014, Lanyon acquired Passkey, an American seller of group reservation and optimization technology services. Passkey claims to serve more than 90% of the North American Convention and Visitor Bureau market, and its GroupMax reservation technology is touted as the most-widely-deployed in the hospitality industry.
Cvent, profitable since 2003, has been rolling up other players in the MICE sector, too, including its acquisitions of Elite Meetings International and meeting tool SignUp4 last year.
The company said that going private and being supported by Vista’s financial strength will enable it to accelerate its product development and hire the top talent.
Vista has committed $20 billion in capital across its portfolio. In a statement, Brian Sheth, co-founder and president of Vista, said:
“Reggie and the Cvent team have built a leading portfolio of products and are positioned for expansion in a large and under-penetrated market.”
Earlier: CVent's CEO on The Event Effect – a tech-led future for meetings, conferences and exhibitions