* Salesforce deal to buy Slack doesn’t pressure us to do M&A - CEO * Qualtrics float comes two years after acquisition by SAP * IPO was the only way to keep Qualtrics team on board - Klein * We plan to retain majority stake in Qualtrics for years to come NEW YORK/BERLIN, Dec 8 (Reuters) - German business software group SAP won’t be pushed into takeovers in response to rival Salesforce’s $27.7 billion deal to buy workplace collaboration app Slack, CEO Christian Klein told Reuters. But the global leader in enterprise application software does see scope for its Qualtrics unit, acquired two years ago for $8 billion, to pursue deals after its forthcoming U.S. stock listing. “We don’t see the need to buy revenue”, Klein told Reuters in an interview. Other than Qualtrics, SAP was for now focused more on building partnerships than making acquisitions, he said. Klein, 40, took sole charge of SAP in April and has since undergone a baptism of fire as the coronavirus pandemic forced many of its 400,000 customers to reconfigure their businesses at speed. In a strategy reset in October, he said SAP would need to invest in accelerating the shift of its customers’ core enterprise functions to remote cloud servers from its legacy on-premise model. The move was welcomed by many users, who see the cloud offering greater resilience and flexibility, but it was panned by investors after management scrapped mid-term guidance that profit margins would expand by a percentage point a year. Shares fell by a fifth and SAP lost its mantle as Europe’s most valuable tech company. “Investors were disappointed because last year we gave different guidance,” Klein said. “Now they said, yes, we fully subscribe to the strategy, but please execute with consistency.” Klein is holding remote investor roadshows for the IPO by Qualtrics, which was bought by predecessor Bill McDermott two years ago and measures sentiment between businesses and their customers across digital “touch points”. With tech stocks rallying hard in the meantime, Klein said the float was attracting strong interest. Banking sources familiar with the offering say it could raise $1-$2 billion and value Qualtrics at anything between $15 billion and $20 billion. Klein declined to comment in detail on the valuation or timing of the IPO, citing regulatory restraints. With a heavy schedule of U.S. tech listings in December, an offering in early 2021 looks most likely. JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been named as global coordinators for the offering. Klein said floating the unit had been the only way to keep on board the Qualtrics leadership team led by founder Ryan Smith, who was unsettled by the departure this spring of SAP’s American co-CEO Jennifer Morgan. “After I became sole CEO, obviously Ryan was a bit concerned,” said Klein. “After a lot of late-night calls, what we both figured out is a solution which was a win-win.” SAP will keep a controlling stake for the years to come, Klein said, while Smith will be free to pursue new business beyond the group’s existing customer base - and have Qualtrics shares as an acquisition currency. As for SAP, Klein said it would steer clear of big takeovers even as Salesforce’s deal to buy Slack opens the way for the leader in customer relationship management to create a platform to connect employees, partners and customers. Instead, he is seeking to consolidate SAP’s lead in areas “where we have a right to win” such as its core enterprise resource planning business, procurement, commerce and supply chains. Elsewhere, SAP will pursue a partner-first strategy, Klein said: “SAP will make some great partnership moves in the near future.” (Additional reporting by Arno Schuetze, Writing by Douglas Busvine; editing by John Stonestreet)