Updated with company comment:

Cloud data backup firm Rubrik Inc. has approached several “large technology companies” about the possibility of selling itself, according to a report today.

The company, which was described as a so-called “unicorn” following a $261 million funding round in January that valued it at $3.3 billion, has reportedly struggled to maintain its momentum. Its problems include “slowing sales growth and a smaller than expected addressable market,” The Information reported.

However, reached late Tuesday, the company issued a surprisingly firm denial. “The rumors of Rubrik’s sale are completely false,” a company spokesperson said. “Rubrik is not for sale and no such conversations have occurred.”

Chief Executive Bipul Sinha (pictured) issued an equally strong denial in a blog post late Tuesday titled, “We’re not for sale.” “This story is completely false,” he wrote. “I want to make it unequivocally clear that Rubrik is not for sale. We are committed to building a long-lasting, independent company.”

Rubrik sells a software platform that functions as a centralized hub for managing a company’s data protection activities. It provides the ability to schedule backups, archive infrequently used records, identify inefficient use of storage resources and quickly recover files in the event the originals become unavailable. Administrators can use these features to protect both on-premises and cloud systems.

The company was eyeing further growth and also considering the possibility of filing for an initial public offering following its latest funding round, but that hasn’t materialized, according to The Information report.

Dave Vellante, co-founder of SiliconANGLE sister market research firm Wikibon, noted that at the potential tail end of the long recent tech boom, finding a suitor might be easier than an IPO.

Moreover, he said, Rubrik as well as its close competitors face a lot of challenges. “The market in which Rubrik competes is very much entrenched,” he said, including Veritas Technologies LLC, Dell EMC, Commvault Systems Inc., Veeam Software Inc. and even IBM Corp.

Rubrik and key rival Cohesity Inc., he added, need to evolve their market from backup to data management, while moving their businesses further from on-premises data centers to cloud software-as-a-service — which pits them against a number of cloud computing giants.

The Information did, however, quote an unnamed source at the company as saying its target market “continues to be large and over $20 billion, and that its customer base has grown by 70% in the last 12 months.

“Our goal has always been to build Rubrik into a large independent technology company,” the source said. “We are focused on delivering the next generation data management platform for our customers including expanding our offerings into several new markets such as data governance, disaster recovery orchestration, and continuous data protection.”

Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president of Constellation Research Inc., said data management systems are increasingly needed by enterprises in order for them to operate effectively within the hybrid and multicloud reality.

The Information said public cloud providers Amazon Web Services Inc., Google LLC and Microsoft Corp. could all potentially benefit from acquiring Rubrik’s technology.

Vellante suggested storage stalwart NetApp Inc. could be a logical buyer because it already has a data management story. NetApp tried to buy Data Domain Corp. back in 2009, only to lose it to EMC Corp., he noted. Moreover, it’s an unlikely candidate for a private equity buyout because cash flow is probably limited, he said.

Shay Mowlem, Rubrik’s senior vice president of product and strategy, and Chief Technologist Chris Wahl spoke to SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio theCUBE at the recent VMworld conference in San Francisco about several different use cases for the company’s technology:

Photo: Rubrik