Qualtrics to buy healthcare tech firm Press Ganey in $6.75 billion deal, FT reports

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(Reuters) -AI-powered customer survey software maker Qualtrics has agreed to buy healthcare market research company Press Ganey Forsta in a $6.75 billion deal, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The deal comes at a time when tech giants are racing to secure proprietary datasets to train their artificial intelligence models.

If finalized, the deal would give Qualtrics access to the healthcare survey firm’s deep hospital ties and datasets, which it would use to help healthcare providers to improve tracking patient satisfaction and offer better care.

Press Ganey, owned by Ares Management and Los Angeles-based private equity group Leonard Green & Partners, works with over 41,000 hospitals, health plans, and life sciences organizations, and collects and analyzes feedback from patients and caregivers, integrating it with clinical and safety data to provide healthcare organizations insights.

Under the deal’s terms, Press Ganey will be paid in a combination of cash and privately held Qualtrics’ stock, the FT report said, adding the deal is set to be announced later on Monday.

U.S.-based Qualtrics, which is owned by private equity firm Silver Lake, provides tools for measuring and analyzing customer, employee, product and brand experiences. It serves large enterprises, governments and universities, with clients including Microsoft, BMW, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

German software company SAP, which bought Qualtrics in 2018 for $8 billion, sold its majority stake to private investment firms Silver Lake and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in a deal valued at about $12.5 billion in 2023.

Qualtrics did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Puyaan Singh and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)