German software group SAP has acquired experience management SaaS specialist Qualtrics for $8 billion.

The Qualtrics XM Platform collects feedback and data across four business areas, namely customers, employees, product, and brand, and so help their business customers design the experiences they want to deliver. The company expects revenues for the full year of over $400 million.

SAP/Qualtrics is the third largest deal from Europe to the US so far this year, according to intelligence from Mergermarket, only behind Sanofi/Bioverativ ($10.9bn) and BP/Petrohawk Energy ($10.5bn). M&A from Europe into the US has now reached $113.2bn (428 deals) so far this year, marking the fifth successive year over $100bn.

The acquisition comes as SAP, Germany’s largest company by market value, is shifting its enterprise software business to the cloud from traditional on-premises services, with the goal of becoming a one-stop shop for all digital offerings.

CEO Bill McDermott said the acquisition would allow SAP to combine its operational data with customer experience data from Qualtrics, enabling clients to incorporate real-time feedback into their strategies.

SAP intends to expand Qualtrics’ offerings across its base of more than 413,000 customers. Qualtrics sells market research and survey software to more than 9,000 customers, from Coca-Cola and BMW to the US Air Force and Walt Disney.

After close, Qualtrics will become part of SAP’s Cloud Business Group. Ryan Smith will continue to lead Qualtrics, which will also keep its dual headquarters in headquarters in Provo, Utah, and Seattle, Washington.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year.

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