Investor Singer takes position, looks for changes at Radnor's Qlik

Tom Paine

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Elliott Associates, led by Paul Singer, and its affiliates have acquired a combined
8.9% position in Radnor-based business intelligence software vendor Qlik Technologies, it said in a filing.

Elliott Associates said in the filing that it believed the company's shares are "significantly undervalued." It also said it has initiated talks with Qlik's management and board about strategic and operational opportunities.

Singer can take relatively passive positions (Elliott took a small position in Comcast last year), but in other cases can be very aggressive in forcing changes in enterprise structure or ownership. Recent examples include Tibco Software and PetSmart.

A Barron's columnist panned Qlik's financial performance in January . Though still
growing, Qlik has been hurt by competition (Tableau, probably Microsoft) and lately the stronger dollar, since considerable revenue comes from overseas. It has excellent technology and some analysts have sensed signs of a turnaround, but that hasn't shown up much in financial results yet.

Qlik (NASDAQ: QLIK) is up about 9% on the day. It has a market value of $2.5 billion.

Update: No comment I've seen from Qlik so fsr as of late Thursdsy.