Ryan Smith, owner of Utah Jazz, leads Qualtrics IPO as team moves up to # 1

On Wednesday night, Ryan Smith, the new owner of the Utah Jazz, celebrated his team’s 10th consecutive victory, which propelled the team to first place against the Los Angeles Lakers at the NBA Western Conference.

Then he woke up and rang the virtual Nasdaq bell.

Smith, 42, went public with his software company Qualtrics on Thursday, knocking it out of SAP. It was a long-awaited moment for Smith, who was set to lead Qualtrics via an IPO in late 2018, when SAP stepped in at the last moment with an $ 8 billion bid. Today, the company is worth more than $ 27 billion.

The deal marks a boon for Smith. He invested $ 120 million in the offer, buying 6 million shares for $ 20 each, which ended up being a 33% reduction from the offer price. This stake is now valued at over $ 273 million. Qualtrics jumped 52% to $ 45.50 on its first day of trading.

It was a good start to 2021 for Smith. Longtime jazz fan, Smith found himself with the unlikely opportunity to buy the team last year for $ 1.6 billion from the Miller family, who owned the franchise for 36 years. He served in the field for years and was intimately involved with the team, sponsoring the uniform patch with his Five for the Fight campaign to fund cancer research.

The Jazz got off to a poor start when the season kicked off last month, but the team are now 14-4 after beating the Dallas Mavericks by 12 points on Wednesday night, even with leading scorer Donovan Mitchell put out. the gap. Smith was in attendance with a handful of fans, who have to stay socially distant due to Covid-19 restrictions. Viewers saw the Qualtrics logo splashed in parts of the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.

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

“It’s my night shift,” Smith told CNBC in an interview Thursday, before Qualtrics began trading. He admitted that between basketball and business, “we had a good run.”

Smith is still president of Qualtrics, but ceded the CEO 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 ready for a second round. (SAP still owns over 80% of its shares after the spin-out.)

Qualtrics develops cloud-based software that helps businesses stay in touch with their customers, monitor how they use their products, and make improvements on the fly based on data and analytics. The company has grown its customer base to around 13,000 from 9,000 two years ago. Revenue increased 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 this relationship predates Smith’s possession of the Jazz. According to the Qualtrics prospectus, the NBA is using technology to help design its digital tools in ways that are engaging with fans and to “better understand the emotions and feelings of fans and the experience of NBA League Pass subscribers.”

Starting last year, with the coronavirus outbreak and the league’s subsequent shutdown, Qualtrics worked with the NBA to turn their Orlando bubble into an enjoyable experience for viewers as well as to keep up with players, employees and staff to ensure safety and health.

“We use Qualtrics extensively to help with testing and tracing for Covid,” Smith said.

– CNBC’s Alex Sherman contributed to this report

WATCH: CNBC Interview with Qualtrics Co-Founder Ryan Smith and CEO Zig Serafin

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