Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith leads Qualtrics IPO as the team moves to first place

On Wednesday night, Ryan Smith, the new owner of the Utah Jazz, celebrated his team’s tenth straight victory, which catapulted the team to first place against the Los Angeles Lakers at the Western NBA Conference.

He then woke up and rang the Nasdaq virtual bell.

Smith, 42, made his Qualtrics software company public on Thursday, making it out of SAP. It was a long-awaited moment for Smith, who was about to lead Qualtrics through a IPO in late 2018, when SAP was introduced at the last minute with a $ 8 billion offer. Now the company is worth more than $ 27 billion.

The deal is a big loss for Smith. He invested $ 120 million in the offer, buying 6 million shares for $ 20 per piece, which ended up being a 33% discount on the offer price. This stake is now valued at more than $ 273 million. Qualtrics jumped 52% to $ 45.50 on its first day of trading.

Smith has been the beginning of 2021. A lifelong jazz aficionado, Smith found himself with the unlikely opportunity to buy the equipment last year for $ 1.6 billion from the Miller family, which had owned the franchise for 36 years. He has been sitting next to the court for years and has been closely associated with the team, sponsoring the uniform patch with his Five for the Fight Campaign to fund cancer research.

The Jazz had a mediocre start when they started the season last month, but the team is now 14-4 after beating the Dallas Mavericks by 12 points Wednesday night, even with top scorer Donovan Mitchell out. game. Smith attended along with a host of fans, who must remain socially distanced due to Covid-19 restrictions. Viewers saw the Qualtrics logo splattered by parts of the Salt Lake City Living Arena.

After the game, Smith awarded head coach Quin Snyder the ball of the game for coaching his 500th game of the regular season.

“This is my night job,” Smith told CNBC Thursday in an interview before Qualtrics began trading. He acknowledged that between basketball and business, “we’ve had a good run.”

Smith remains the president of Qualtrics, but handed over the title of CEO to Zig Serafin, who joined the company in 2016. Smith’s family owned 40% of Qualtrics when SAP bought it, making it a billionaires. He is now in a second race. (SAP still owns more than 80% of its shares after the separation).

Qualtrics develops cloud-based software that helps companies stay in touch with their customers, monitor their use of their products, and make improvements based on database and analysis. The company has increased 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.

A notable client is the NBA, and this relationship predates the ownership of Smith Jazz. According to Qualtrics’ prospectus, the NBA uses technology to help design its digital tools in a way that is appealing to fans and to “gain insights into the emotions and feelings of fans and the experience of NBA League Pass subscribers.” .

Starting last year, with the outbreak of coronavirus and the league’s subsequent shutdown, Qualtrics worked with the NBA to turn its Orlando bubble into a pleasurable experience for viewers, as well as to keep track of players, employees and staff to ensure safety and health.

“We’re using Qualtrics to help us with testing and tracking Covid,” Smith said.

– CNBC’s Alex Sherman contributed to this report

I’LL SEE: CNBC interview with Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith and CEO Zig Serafin

Nominations are open for 2021 CNBC Disruptor 50, a list of private companies that use innovative technology to become the next generation of large public companies. Present on Friday, Feb. 12 at 3 p.m. EST.