Cvent Nears $5-Billion-As well as SPAC Deal

Robert Smith, CEO of Vista Fairness Partners. The non-public fairness business took Cvent personal in 2016.

Photograph:

Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg Information

Updated July 20, 2021 3:29 pm ET

Cvent Inc. has agreed to merge with a exclusive-objective acquisition corporation in a deal that would take the celebration-administration computer software firm general public, in accordance to individuals acquainted with the subject.

Cvent is slated to merge with

Dragoneer Growth Options Corp. II

DGNS -.71%

in a transaction that values the non-public-fairness-owned organization at extra than $5 billion which includes debt, the men and women claimed.

Cvent is owned by private-fairness firm Vista Fairness Associates, which took the corporation personal in 2016 in a $1.65 billion deal.

Right before the coronavirus pandemic, the maker of cloud-based mostly party-management software concentrated only on live situations, but it has pivoted more than the earlier yr to become a key participant in the rapid-escalating arena of digital activities.

The company’s virtual-situations arm now has additional than $100 million in profits, a important chunk of its extra than $500 million in yearly revenue, according to a single of the people acquainted with the matter.

Non-public organizations are flooding to distinctive-function acquisition providers, or SPACs, to bypass the traditional IPO course of action and gain a general public listing. WSJ points out why some critics say investing in these so-named blank-verify companies is not truly worth the chance. Illustration: Zoë Soriano/WSJ

SPACs raise dollars by going general public as vacant shells and then have a established interval, usually about two years, to come across a company to merge with. The system, which can be faster and have less regulatory hurdles than a conventional first community offering, has surged in acceptance in latest many years, though recently it has shown signals of cooling.

With more than $77 billion in belongings underneath administration, Vista specializes in investing in makers of organization computer software. The Austin, Texas-based mostly business, run by founder

Robert Smith,

works by using a proprietary playbook to increase earnings at the providers it purchases.

Create to Miriam Gottfried at [email protected]

Appeared in the July 21, 2021, print version as ‘Vista’s Cvent Reaches SPAC Offer.’