Qualtrics to hire 1,000 staff in EMEA push

Qualtrics International

06/09/2021 07:00

By Douglas Busvine
    BERLIN, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Qualtrics  XM.O , the online
survey company that floated on the U.S. stock market in January,
said on Monday it would hire 1,000 employees in Europe to
promote its flagship software that allows firms to gather
feedback from customers and staff.
    Utah-based Qualtrics plans to double the size of its
regional headquarters in the Irish capital, Dublin, early next
year and complete the new hires in Europe, the Middle East and
Africa by 2024.
    Qualtrics, controlled by German software group SAP
 SAPG.DE , says its "experience management" platform makes it
possible for clients to address concerns expressed by customers
or staff in real time.
    Demand for its services has been driven by the COVD-19
pandemic as commerce has increasingly shifted online and more
people work remotely. At the same time, customers are becoming
more demanding and harder to please.
    "Switching costs have never been lower to move from one
organization that you do business with to another - it's often
within one click," CEO Zig Serafin told Reuters in an interview.
    "As a result, every leader is figuring out how to keep
employees and how to find new customers - and keep the customers
that they have."
    The company, which counts Merck KgAA  MRCG.DE , Airbus
 AIR.PA  and the Financial Times as clients, doesn't give a
regional sales breakdown but says it is targeting an addressable
market of $60 billion.
    It says it expects to achieve revenue of $1 billion this
year and recently announced the takeover of conversational
analytics company Clarabridge for $1.1 billion in stock to
support its growth strategy.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2OW2H7  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2P52RS
    SAP acquired Qualtrics for $8 billion https://www.reuters.com/article/tmt-conference-sap-se-idINKCN1NL0ZT
 nearly three years ago but, following a change of leadership at
the German software group, its CEO Christian Klein agreed with
Qualtrics founder Ryan Smith to spin out the business.
    Qualtrics floated on Nasdaq https://www.reuters.com/article/us-qualtrics-intl-ipo-idUSKBN29W2YE
 in January at $30 a share and its shares ended last week at
$48, valuing the business at $24.7 billion.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2K23RB

 (Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
 ((douglas.busvine@tr.com; +49 30 220 133 562;))