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

On Wednesday evening, Ryan Smith, the new owner of the Utah Jazz, celebrated his team’s tenth consecutive victory, which catapulted the team to first place over the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA’s Western Conference.

Then he woke up and the Nasdaq’s virtual bell rang.

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

The deal is a stroke of luck for Smith. He invested $ 120 million in the offering and bought 6 million shares for $ 20 each, which ended up being a 33% discount on the offer price. That stake is now valued at over $ 273 million. Qualtrics jumped 52% to $ 45.50 on the first day of trading.

It’s been a good start to 2021 for Smith. A lifelong jazz fan, Smith had the unlikely chance of buying the team for $ 1.6 billion last year from the Miller family, who had owned the franchise for 36 years. He had been on court for years and was deeply 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 got underway last month, but the team is now 14-4 after beating the Dallas Mavericks by 12 points on Wednesday-evening, even with top scorer Donovan Mitchell offside. Smith was in attendance, along with a few fans, who had to stay at a social distance due to the Covid-19 restrictions. TV viewers saw the Qualtrics logo splash over parts of the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City.

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

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

Smith is still the chairman of Qualtrics, but has transferred 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 him a billionaire. Now he is in for a second run. (SAP still owns more than 80% of its shares after the spinout.)

Qualtrics develops cloud-based software that helps companies stay in touch with their customers, monitor how they use their products and make improvements on the fly based on data and analysis. The company has increased its customer base to approximately 13,000 from 9,000 two years ago. Sales 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 client is the NBA – and that relationship predates Smith’s ownership of the Jazz. According to Qualtrics’ prospectus, the NBA is using the technology to help design its digital tools in a way that appeals to fans and to “understand the emotions and feelings of fans and the experience of NBA League Pass subscribers.”

Starting last year, with the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent closure of the league, Qualtrics worked with the NBA to make the Orlando bubble an enjoyable experience for viewers and to monitor players, staff and staff to ensure safety and security. to ensure health.

“We are using Qualtrics enormously to help test and detect Covid,” said Smith.

– CNBC’s Alex Sherman contributed to this report

WATCH: CNBC’s interview with Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith and CEO Zig Serafin

Nominations are open for 2021 CNBC disruptor 50, a list of private start-ups using breakthrough technology to become the next generation of large public companies. To send until Friday, Feb. 12 at 3:00 p.m. EST.