Tysons, Virginia, based Cvent, whose software as a service is used by companies for meetings and events planning, will be acquired by New York-based investment company Blackstone for $4.6 billion.
A wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will be a minority owner along with Blackstone once the acquisition is complete.
Cvent, founded in 1999, went public a year ago, trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. It reports it has 22,000 customers in the corporate, nonprofit, higher education and hospitality industries.
Cvent was hit hard at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 as in person meetings, weddings and other in-person events were scrapped. In May 2020, it laid off 10% of its workforce.
Since the pandemic began, Cvent has grown its virtual and hybrid meetings and events planning offerings. Last fall, it partnered with Zoom to integrate Zoom Events with its platform.
Cvent currently has 4,800 employees globally.
Part of Cvent’s business model is partnering with hotels and venues and matching them with meeting and travel planners. It lists over 302,000 hotels and venues, and said it has helped manage more than 5 million events since its founding.
“Given our extensive experience in the hospitality, events and real estate sectors, we believe Blackstone is well positioned as a growth partner for this exceptional business,” said Blackstone senior managing director David Schwartz.
In 2016, Cvent was acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $1.6 billion. As part of the Blackstone acquisition, Vista, Cvent’s current majority owner, will invest a portion of its proceeds from the acquisition in preferred stock in financing for the transaction.
Blackstone will partially fund the acquisition with a $1 billion credit facility.
