QlikTech discusses quarterly earnings; Radnor-based company now at over 1100 employees and growing

Tom Paine

Radnor-based Business Intelligence software vendor QlikTech reported its Q1 2012 results this past Thursday, which exceeded guidance. Revenue grew by 26% to $79.2 million, and GAAP operating loss was $7.8 million (QlikTech usually emphasizes non-GAAP income, but being a traditionalist I always look at GAAP results first). For the full year 2012, the company raised its guidance for revenue to be in the range of $408.0 million to $418.0 million and non-GAAP operating income to be in the range of $55.0 million to $60.0. At the midpoint of that guidance, revenue would grow 29% over 2011.

Headcount is now at 1157, up 31% over the prior year; there were 103 new hires in the quarter, and the company expects to add more than that in Q2. The last time I checked a couple of quarters ago, perhaps slightly more than 10% of those were based in Radnor. QlikTech is a rather geographically decentralized company.

The major mesage I picked up during the conference call was the growth of large enterprise accounts. QlikTech CEO Lars Bjork spoke of accounts with "tens of thousands" of users. He said the perception some competitors try to paint of QlikTech being largely a departmental solution is inaccurate.

At its Qonnections 2012 Global Partners Conference held in Miami Beach last week, one announcement was the introduction of QlikMarket, QlikTech's version of the App Store that will come on line late in the year. QlikMarket will feature "predefined solutions" for specific applications or verticals from QlikTech partners. The company doesn't have much specific public information out about it yet (apparently its existence was prematurely discovered via an employee's LinkedIn profile).

Bjork says he hasn't seen "big data" apps impacting QlikTech's business yet. In terms of competition, QlikTech usually doesn't talk about specific competitors, although Bjork did say it is "not a greenfield and we're the only ones around, in many cases". Tableau and Tibco's Spotfire are probably two of the most important competitors in QlikTech's specific space. Bjork said he doesn't see any direct competition from any of SAP's HANA-based products at this time, as "its a very different offering". On the mobile front, I got the sense that progress is being slowed by performance related to bandwidth and device capacity issues. Bjork said they are hopeful widespread LTE availability will address some of the bandwidth issues; QlikTech is also said to be working on caching for the iPad.

CFO Bill Sorenson may have hinted at possible small acquisitions later in the year. In discussing cash flow projections, he said they could be impacted slightly buy some "technology tuck-ins" that could materialize during the year. QlikTech has not been acquisitive at all to this point. The company has over $200 million in cash.

QlikTech shares closed today at $28.44, down from $30.82 before Thursday's earnings release. Its market capitalization is now $2.4 billion.



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