Ryan Smith’s Qualtrics CEO and co-founder of 5 for the Fight speaks at the press conference announcing the renewal of the Five for the Fight Qualtrics Jersey Patch during the 2022-2023 season on October 21, 2019 at Zions Bank Basketball Center in Salt . Lake City, Utah.
Melissa Majchrzak | National Basketball Association | Getty Images
On Wednesday night, Ryan Smith, the new owner of the Utah Jazz, celebrated his team’s tenth victory in a row, dropping the team first over the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA’s Western Conference.
Then he woke up and rang the virtual bell of the Nasdaq.
Smith, 42, announced his software company Qualtrics on Thursday and turned it out of SAP. It was a long-awaited moment for Smith, who was on the verge of leading Qualtrics through a stock market at the end of 2018, when SAP jumped in at the last minute with an offer of $ 8 billion. Now the company is worth more than $ 27 billion.
The deal is a windfall for Smith. He invested $ 120 million in the offer and bought 6 million shares for $ 20 apiece, which ended up with a 33% discount on the offer price. The stake is now valued at more than $ 273 million. Qualtrics rose 52% to $ 45.50 in the first day of trading.
It was quite a start for 2021 for Smith. A lifelong Jazz fan, Smith had the unlikely opportunity to buy the team last year for $ 1.6 billion from the Miller family, who have owned the franchise for 36 years. He sat on the court for years and was intensely involved with the team and sponsored the uniform plate with his Five for the Fight campaign to fund cancer research.
Rudy Gobert # 27 of the Utah Jazz reacts after dipping during the third quarter of the game against the Boston Celtics in TD Garden on March 06, 2020 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Omar Rawlings | Getty Images
The Jazz started mediocre when the season kicked off last month, but the team is now 14-4 after beating the Dallas Mavericks by 12 points on Wednesday night, even with scorer Donovan Mitchell on the sidelines. Smith was with a bunch of fans who had to stay socially distanced due to the limitations of Covid-19. TV viewers see the Qualtrics logo splashing over parts of the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.
After the game, Smith, Quin Snyder, awarded the head ball coach for coaching his 500th game in the regular season.
“This is my night job,” Smith said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday before Qualtrics began trading. He admitted that “we had a good run between basketball and business.”
Smith is still the chairman of Qualtrics, but handed over the CEO’s title to Zig Serafin, who joined the company in 2016. Smith’s family owned 40% of Qualtrics when SAP bought it, making him a billionaire. Now he’s in for a second run. (SAP still owns more than 80% of its shares after the expiration.)
Qualtrics develops software-based software that helps companies stay in touch with their customers, monitor how they use their products, and make improvements based on data and analytics. The company has expanded its customer base to about 13,000 from 9,000 two years ago. Revenue rose more than 30% in the first three quarters of 2020 to $ 550 million, from $ 413.4 million in the same period last year.
One notable customer is the NBA – and the relationship is ahead of Smith’s ownership of the Jazz. According to the Qualtrics prospectus, the NBA uses the technology to design its digital instruments in a way that grabs fans and to ‘gain insight into the emotions and sentiments of fans and the experience of the NBA League Pass subscribers’.
Since last year, with the outbreak of the coronavirus and the subsequent closure of the league, Qualtrics has worked with the NBA to make its Orlando bubble into an enjoyable experience for viewers, as well as locating players, employees and staff. to ensure safety and health.
“We use Qualtrics a ton to help test and detect Covid,” Smith said.
– Alex Sherman from CNBC contributed to this report
LOOK: CNBC’s interview with co-founder Ryan Smith and CEO Zig Serafin
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