Skift Take
Cvent, a leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider, is reportedly looking into selling with private-equity firm Blackstone interested.
Events and hospitality technology provider Cvent is reportedly looking into selling. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company is valued at more than $4 billion.
Private-equity firms, including Blackstone with its reported $975 billion in assets, are interested.
As the event tech market rightsizes after its pandemic high, companies like Blackstone are taking note. Skift Meetings spoke to two Blackstone analysts in December who said they were doing due diligence about the event tech market. They wouldn’t share details, but this could be the deal they were researching. This isn’t Blackstone’s first foray in event tech. In 2018, it acquired events tech provider PSAV, now Encore.
History Could Repeat Itself
If the sale happens and Cvent goes private, it will not be the first time. In 2016, Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on technology-enabled businesses, acquired the company for $1.65 billion. Founder Reggie Aggarwal continued as CEO and president.
In 2021, Cvent joined Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp. II and returned to the public markets. The Wall Street Journal reports that Vista still owns approximately 80 percent of Cvent.
“I’m not surprised that private equity companies are evaluating taking Cvent private. Like most other public SaaS companies, Cvent is trading at a big discount to their pandemic high,” said event tech veteran Matthew Donegan-Ryan.
Donegan-Ryan has sold multiple companies to Cvent as co-founder, investor, or advisor. “Cvent clients likely have nothing to worry about as over the past decade, Cvent has gone from privately held by majority owner Insight Partners to public, back to to privately held, by Vista Equity Partners, to public; and now likely back to private again. During that time, the original management team, anchored by Reggie Aggarwal and Chuck Ghoorah, have remained in place and the impact to clients was negligible,” he said.
Skift Meetings reached out to Cvent and was told, “Cvent does not comment on market rumors or speculation.”
Cvent has more than 4,700 employees worldwide and 290,000 hotels and venues listed on the Cvent Supplier Network.
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