What's Next for Cvent and Meetings Following Its $1.65 Billion Acquisition?

Cvent, the world's largest meetings and event management technology platform, announced last week an agreement to get acquired in a landmark deal by Vista Equity Partners for $1.65 billion. Upon completion of the buyout, expected in the third quarter, Cvent stockholders will receive $36 in cash per share, a premium of about 69% over Cvent’s closing price on April 15. Skift spoke with Brian Ludwig, vice president of sales for Cvent, during the IMEX Frankfurt conference last week to get an insider look at how the acquisition might shift overall strategy and operations. First, Cvent is presently a public company. As a newly privatized enterprise following the acquisition, Cvent would be freed from the constraints of meeting quarterly earnings projections. That should allow the company to experiment a bit more with new technological innovations, especially in terms of international customization and data analytics. "Being a public company keeps you very structured so you don't take those long-term risks sometimes, because it might come at the cost of hitting a quarterly number," Ludwig said. "Without that pressure, I think we'll try different things. We'll try different models and see what happens with them because there won't be those same pressures." The largest new initiative, which aligns with Vista's stated goals, would ha