Cvent Holdings Corp. will once again be a private company. The Tysons Corner, Va.-based software provider for the meeting and events market announced March 14 that it had agreed to be acquired by private-equity firm Blackstone in a deal valued at approximately $4.6 billion. The sale is expected to be complete by mid-2023.
The possibility of a sale had been followed by the financial press, with The Wall Street Journal reporting January 31 on Cvent’s interest in a deal, and Reuters reporting on February 24 that Cvent had rejected a $3.9 billion acquisition offer from Blackstone.
A release on the terms of the deal, noted that Blackstone will pay $8.50 per share of Cvent stock, and that the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is a major investor in the company alongside Blackstone.
The meeting-technology company has been owned by private equity before. In business since 1999, Cvent’s initial public offering was in 2013, raising $135 million on the New York Stock exchange. In 2016, the company went private when Vista Equity Partners acquired it for $1.65 billion. After five years with Vista, Cvent went public for a second time in December 2021, trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol CVT at a valuation of $5.3 billion and raising $801 million for its growth.
“The continued events and travel recovery is one of Blackstone’s highest-conviction investment themes,” said David Schwartz, a senior managing director at Blackstone. “Given our extensive experience in the hospitality, events, and real estate sectors, we believe Blackstone is well positioned as a growth partner for this exceptional business.”
Commenting on the new owner, Reggie Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Cvent, said, “As one of the world’s largest private-equity firms, Blackstone brings deep expertise in the event and hospitality industry, and with their backing we plan to continue to invest in our business and deliver the innovative solutions that meet our customers’ needs and power the meetings and events ecosystem.”
Cvent reported 4,900 employees and approximately 22,000 customers worldwide as of the end of 2022. The company provides a wide range of software solutions for managing, marketing, and reporting on events, such as tools for check-in, registration, event budgeting, and mobile event apps. It also has a suite of products for virtual meetings and provides a marketplace for meeting planners to search for hotels and other venues and send RFPs. The company recently announced a partnership with hivr.ai to automate and speed up the RFP process for conference hotels.
