Qualtrics has agreed to acquire Press Ganey Forsta for $6.75BN.
Press Ganey Forsta, often referred to as “PG Forsta”, is a rising force in the voice of the customer (VoC) space, rivaling Qualtrics.
Indeed, it recently placed as a Leader in the market’s latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for VoC.
In doing so, PG Forsta ranked alongside InMoment, which it later rolled up in May.
As such, this latest acquisition brings together three of the VoC space’s biggest brands.
Yet, Qualtrics is one of the market’s two most prominent names, with Medallia the other.
The acquisition will extend its market leadership and help consolidate the space.
Nevertheless, it will also boost Qualtrics’ industry-specific offerings, with PG Forsta widely deployed in the healthcare space and other highly-regulated sectors.
Across these industries, it offers advanced journey visualizations and templates, simplifying feature adoption.
PG Forsta is also well-known for its strong support services and differentiated AI solutions for front-line, customer-facing employees.
As such, it can offer many more bows to Qualtrics’ quiver, with the deal marking the VoC giant’s largest investment since it was taken private by Silver Lake in 2023.
“Bringing Qualtrics and Press Ganey Forsta together will accelerate the adoption of AI and create the most comprehensive platform for improving the human experience,” said Zig Serafin, CEO of Qualtrics.
Combining Qualtrics’ AI platform with Press Ganey Forsta’s trusted analytics and deep expertise creates an opportunity to deliver exceptional value and measurable outcomes for our customers.
The combined companies are expected to generate nearly $3BN in annual revenue. The cash and stock transaction is expected to close in the coming months, and the two companies will continue to operate independently in the meantime.
But beyond size, Patrick T. Ryan, Chairman and CEO of Press Ganey Forsta, stressed that the real differentiator is the ability to turn massive data into smarter, faster decisions powered by AI.
“AI is rapidly transforming every industry, and organizations need proven, innovative solutions grounded in deep expertise to move from insight to impact faster,” he said. This investment ignites our ability to deliver.”
Qualtrics has already been making strides in AI with tools like Conversational Feedback, Qualtrics Assist, synthetic research platform Edge Audiences, and Experience Agents. According to the company, more than one-third of customers have adopted these AI features, and 90 percent of their top 50 enterprise clients are already using them.
Now, with Press Ganey Forsta’s benchmarking data and advisory services in the mix, Qualtrics aims to help clients move from insights to impact faster.
As Bill Staikos, Founder and Managing Partner of Be Customer Led, put it in a LinkedIn post:
In the quickly consolidating CXM space, this is the loudest signal yet that ‘experience’ is more and more about data fidelity and industry depth. PG’s healthcare footprint is enormous, and the combined company also recently picked up InMoment. So this is data scale + vertical credibility + AI (and AI training) in one package.
That massive healthcare footprint sees Press Ganey Forsta work with 41,000 providers across 30 countries. As it does so, Press Ganey Forsta’s Human Experience (HX) Platform brings together customer experience, employee experience, patient experience, and market research. Yet, its influence is expanding.
Jim Davies, Co-Founder and Executive Partner at Actionary, summarized the move by telling CX Today:
The PG Forsta acquisition strengthens Qualtrics’ healthcare and VoC capabilities, expanding its portfolio and reinforcing its market leadership in experience management. The next frontier will be proactively embedding insights directly into operational workflows to shape customer experiences in real time.
What Does the Deal Mean for Qualtrics’ Rivals?
“The combo locks up healthcare for Qualtrics, as they’ll now have a massive inventory of longitudinal patient and clinician signals, wrapped in compliance workflows and integrations, that most horizontal platforms simply don’t have,” according to Staikos.
For Medallia, it brings both real pressure and hidden opportunity. The pressure is clear, as the narrative is shifting hard toward platforms that offer high-signal, trusted, industry-specific data and the ability to drive meaningful action within existing systems. But the opportunity lies in leaning into its strengths: blue-chip clients, strong service delivery, and a foothold in industries like financial services, travel, and telco, Staikos wrote.
Yet, what about other market competitors Sprinklr and Verint?
“[T]his is a green light [for Sprinklr] to lean into their “unified front-office execution,” continued Staikos. “They already own care, social, and marketing workflows; the move now is to prove closed-loop activation with measurable cost-to-serve and revenue lift using the signals they already collect.”
For Verint, which will merge with its rival Calabrio after its recent acquisition by Thoma Bravo, “the path is ‘interaction + intent + outcome’. They can bind VoC to interaction analytics and WEM so leaders can remove failure demand, versus just putting it on a dashboard.
“In the end, if you’re not going to be the data-plus-vertical incumbent, you have to be the activation engine that lives natively in CRM, CCaaS, EHR, POS, and ERP. Vertical depth, packaged outcomes, first-party data leverage, and ruthless proof of value in quarters, not years, is the winning message.
The VoC market has been heating up with consolidations and AI innovation. All eyes will be on how quickly the combined company can integrate its capabilities and deliver on its promise to turn better data into better human experiences at scale.
