UPDATE 1: Medallia Advised by Kirkland & Ellis, Lenders Working With Latham & Watkins for Debt-for-Equity Swap Deal

Wed Apr 22, 2026 05:15 PM ET: Medallia is advised by Kirkland & Ellis, and the customer experience company’s private credit lenders are represented by Latham & Watkins, as the two sides are close to a transaction for lenders to equitize a portion of their debt, according to sources.

Medallia’s sponsor Thoma Bravo declined to comment. Medallia, Kirkland and Latham did not respond to requests for comment.

Original Story 2:02 p.m. UTC on April 22, 2026

Medallia Lenders Set to Take Over Ownership Control From Sponsor Thoma Bravo in $2B+ Private Credit Restructuring

Medallia’s sponsor, Thoma Bravo, is close to handing over ownership control to the customer experience company’s private credit lenders by equitizing their loan holdings, according to sources.

With $2.8 billion of debt outstanding, this restructuring ranks among the largest ever for a private credit situation.

Earlier this month, a group of private credit lenders led by Blackstone has refused to extend further PIK relief to Medallia, as reported. The lender group, which also includes Apollo Global Management and KKR, previously had a PIK arrangement with Medallia, allowing the company to borrow more rather than use cash on hand to pay interest, as it focused on becoming profitable. But the lender group allowed this arrangement to expire at the end of 2025, the same report said.

The loan balance increased to about $2.8 billion because the lenders extended more financing to the company to complete add-on acquisitions such as Mindful and Thunderhead, and because PIK interest is added to the principal. Medallia also missed performance targets that would have converted the debt into a traditional cash-paying loan. The loan’s new terms will increase debt-servicing costs by roughly $100 million to approximately $300 million, which exceeds Medallia’s annual earnings of $200 million, the Bloomberg report notes.

Thoma Bravo took Medallia private in 2021 at a $6.4 billion valuation. According to the report, its equity in the business – currently totaling about $5.1 billion – has been impaired for a long time. The loan was originally underwritten based on annual recurring revenue, or ARR, rather than traditional earnings, a pandemic-era lending practice that has increasingly drawn scrutiny as interest rates have risen.

Blackstone holds the largest position with $1.5 billion of the debt and has marked down the value of its Medallia position by more than 30%. On Feb. 25, Octus reported that Blackstone Secured Lending Fund marked the company down to 77.75% of par as of Dec. 31, 2025, reflecting operating underperformance and a slower-than-expected turnaround.

Other lenders such as HPS Investment Partners marked the loan down to 69 cents on the dollar as of February. Other BDC lenders include funds managed by Apollo, Blackstone, FS KKR, HPS, Monroe and Onex, according to Octus’ BDC database.

On Nov. 10, 2025, Octus reported that Blackstone Secured Lending Corp. reported a write-down in the fair value of Medallia Inc. to 82.2% of par as of Sept. 30. Blackstone Private Credit Fund moved its loans to Medallia to nonaccrual status as of March 31 this year.

Thoma Bravo and lender FS KKR declined to comment. Medallia and lenders Blackstone, Apollo, HPS, Monroe and Onex did not respond to requests for comment.