New York investment firm Blackstone has completed its previously announced acquisition of Tysons-based events planning software as a service company Cvent, giving it control of a company with 22,000 customers and 4,800 employees worldwide.
The acquisition also includes a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which is now a minority owner along with Blackstone.
Cvent went public on the Nasdaq one year ago, after emerging from the pandemic, which virtually shut down demand for its events planning services. Cvent laid off 10% of its workforce in May 2020.
The company has since grown its virtual and hybrid meetings and events planning services, and last fall partnered with Zoom to integrate Zoom Events with its platform.
Cvent partners with hotels and events venues to match them with meeting, travel and wedding planners. It lists more than 300,000 hotels and venues and said it has helped manage more than 5 million events since its founding in 1999.
“Cvent has long been a go-to event management partner for organizations of all kinds, enabling them to embrace technology solutions in an increasingly digital world,” said David Schwartz, senior managing director at Blackstone. “We’re thrilled to support its continued growth and product advancements, bringing Blackstone’s global resources to bear and leveraging the firm’s deep expertise and thematic focus on hospitality, events and real estate.”
It is the second time in seven years Cvent has been acquired.
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.
