The 35-year old Jesse Cohn, who runs Elliott Management’s U.S. activism, is back at it again. Elliott is now targeting Qlik Technologies ($QLIK) with an 8.8% stake. It says shares are cheap and the data analytics company is ripe for being taken over by a larger technology peer. Also notes that “strategic and operational opportunities” available for the company that would boost its stock. Elliott has a great history of getting small- and mid-cap companies bought out by private equity firms – i.e. Riverbed Technology and Compuware. They’re invested at an average cost of $23.50.
Specifically, Elliott believes “the securities of the Issuer are significantly undervalued. The Reporting Persons believe the Issuer operates in a highly strategic area of the technology industry with an attractive competitive position and a compelling product set, the value of which is not reflected in the Issuers current market value. The Reporting Persons believe there are strategic and operational opportunities for the Issuer that would meaningfully increase value to shareholders and have initiated a dialogue with the Issuers Management and Board of Directors (the “Board”) regarding those opportunities.”
