US-based Data analytics company Qlik and Israel company Attunity Inc. (Bulletin Board: ATTUF)have signed a definitive agreement under which Qlik will acquire Attunity. Qlik will acquire all outstanding ordinary shares of Attunity for a total value of approximately $560 million. Attunity shareholders will receive $23.50 in cash per share, representing a 18% premium over Attunity's last closing price of $19.93 per share on February 20, 2019. Attunity's share price has risen by about 180% in the past year, and reached a peak of $25.2 a few weeks ago. The share price is rising steeply in pre-trading in New York, reflecting investors' confidence that the acquisition will be completed.
The agreement has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of Qlik and Attunity.
The companies said that building on Qlik's recent acquisition of Podium Data and the introduction of Qlik Data Catalyst, Attunity provides cross-platform data streaming capabilities to support a shift to cloud and real-time analytics, and that this acquisition further differentiates Qlik by providing an expanded breadth of enterprise data management capabilities and adds an experienced team of data professionals.
"Attunity's strength in real-time data delivery across complex cloud environments will uniquely position Qlik to help customers lead with data and align their enterprise analytics strategy," said Qlik CEO Mike Capone,. "Attunity has demonstrated strong growth in a large market and together we're better positioned to serve our enterprise customers along with our partner ecosystem to solve the most challenging data problems."
"We are excited to be joining Qlik, combining our data integration and big data management capabilities with the analytics leader to accelerate our success," said Attunity chairman and CEO Shimon Alon. "We believe the transaction is in the best interest of Attunity's stakeholders and provides Attunity with additional awareness and scale to execute our strategic plans as we continue to provide our customers with the premier products and services they have come to expect."
Alon (68) will be one of the main beneficiaries of Attunity's sale, as he holds 8.3% of the shares in the company, worth some $46 million. He already has one significant exit under his belt: the sale of Precise, which he managed, for $540 million in 2002. He invested in Attunity, and took over the reins there in 2008 when the company was producing disappointing results.
In 2018, Attunity had revenue of $86.2 million, 39% more than in 2017, of which $52.5 million was from software licensing and the remainder from maintenance. The company switched to net profit of $6 million on a GAAP basis and $11.7 million on a non-GAAP basis, and generated cash flow of $9.5 million from regular activity. At the end of the year it had $44.2 million cash. Attunity estimated that it would achieve revenue of over $100 million for the first time in 2019.
In an interview with "Globes" a few months ago Alon was asked about the possibility that Attunity might receive an acquisition offer, and responded, "There's no reason why not. I have no control over that, but the fact that we're a small company with annual sales still under $100 million means that fewer people are interested in our day-to-day business. In any event, we're not for sale, because we think we have a great deal more to give in the future. We enjoy doing it alone, and we do it well."
Qlik has a historical tie to Israel - one of its first investors was Israeli venture capital fund JVP. Qlik was eventually floated on Nasdaq, and JVP sold its stake at a substantial profit. Today, Qlik is privately held, by private equity form Thomas Bravo, which bought it in 2016, and recently also completed the acquisition of Imperva, a cyber-security company founded by Shlomo Kramer.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 21, 2019
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