On Thursday, data analytics platform Qlik filed confidential papers with US regulators for an initial public offering, marking the start of the company’s comeback to public markets nearly six years after it was acquired by buyout firm Thoma Bravo.
After being pressured by activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp, Qlik decided to be taken private by Thoma Bravo in 2016 in a nearly $3 billion deal.
More than 50,000 enterprise clients, including PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL.O), Airbus SE, BP PLC, and England’s National Health Service, use the company’s cloud platform to get analytics, data visualization, and intelligence solutions.
Qlik’s move to go public comes at a time when demand for cloud-based analytics and intelligence enterprise software solutions has seen a major uptick as global businesses move to a fully remote or hybrid working model due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Companies register for an IPO in secret with regulators in order to keep their financials hidden from competition until the paperwork is reviewed by the regulator.
