Qlik Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: QLIK), an enterprise software company, has agreed to be bought by private equity firm Thoma Bravo in an all-cash deal valued at about $3 billion. According to terms of the agreement announced Thursday, Qlik shareholders will get $30.50 in cash for each share of Qlik common stock they hold. The price is a 40 percent premium to the company’s unaffected 10-day average stock price prior to March 3. Qlik shares rose 4.3 percent to $30.23 in early trading in New York. They are down 8.5 percent this year through Wednesday. Qlik’s software helps companies analyze and share data for better insight into business patterns -- an area technology giants from International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) to Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) have been investing in. In March, the company was targeted by activist Elliott Management Corp., which disclosed an 8.9 percent stake and said it initiated talks with the company about strategic and operational opportunities. Elliott said then that Qlik was “significantly undervalued.” Thoma Bravo has been active in buying and selling and software companies lately. In 2015, the PE firm partnered with Silver Lake Partners to buy SolarWinds and its portfolio company Hyland Software purchased LawLogix. On the exit side, Thoma Bravo sold Embarcadero Technologies and Sirius Computer Solutions Inc. Thoma Bravo won Mergers & Acquisitions’ 2014 M&A Mid-Market Award for Deal of the Year. Qlik, which will keep its headquarters in Radnor, Pennsylvania, had been seeking potential buyers for some time and received preliminary offers from Bain Capital and Permira in addition to Thoma Bravo, people familiar with the discussions said in April. Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP and Gunderson Dettmer are representing Qlik. -- Additional Reporting by Mergers & Acquisitions' Demitri Diakantonis
