Cvent Stock Climb Could Mean Merger Is Moving Forward

Update, Nov. 18, 10 a.m. Eastern: Cvent confirmed that the U.S. Department of Justice has cleared Vista Equity Partners' acquisition of Cvent. The $1.65 billion deal will close by Nov. 29, according to Cvent.

A sudden and steep rise in Cvent's stock price at midday on Thursday suggests someone out there has reason to believe the value of the company has risen. Clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice for Vista Equity Partners' planned acquisition of Cvent to move forward, perhaps?

Cvent stock opened the day on Thursday at $30.63 per share on the New York Stock Exchange. It began climbing a steep cliff at 12:40 p.m. Eastern and in 15 minutes reached $34.87. The stock closed at $35.72, a 16.62 percent increase on the day.

The movement prompted StreetInsider.com to place the CVT stock on its Unusual 11 Mid-Day Movers 11/17 report, which went out at 1:19 p.m.

So what prompted the move? CNA Finance reported, "In a court ruling that was released today, Vista Equity Partners won approval to close the merger with Cvent." And the New York Post reported that the DOJ had decided not to block the deal. The history there is that the DOJ requested more time to review the deal and Vista Equity declined, betting that the DOJ would not sue Vista Equity to gain that extra time but rather would clear the deal and move on. A Nov. 3 New York Post article framed Vista's gambit as playing a game of chicken with the DOJ.

Meanwhile, there could be a chicken-or-the-egg scenario going on with Thursday's dramatic increase in Cvent stock value. The New York Post article seems to have gone live around the same time Cvent's stock started rising, so the market activity may have been a reaction to the Post article. BTN has not been able to confirm a DOJ decision or approval on Vista Equity's acquisition of Cvent.

Regardless, Thursday's stock jump indicates the excitement in the market for a Vista Equity/Cvent merger, which is expected to close at $36 per share on Nov. 22. Vista Equity owns Cvent competitor Lanyon and recently acquired marketing automation firm Marketo. Put all these things together and Vista will own an end-to-end family of meetings management, meetings engagement data and marketing companies: meetings tech companies Cvent and Lanyon, meetings apps via Lanyon's GenieMobile and Cvent's CrowdCompass, and marketing automation through Marketo. DoubleDutch has chased a similar platform, though via partnerships rather than common ownership.