Qlik Tech International AB today said announced it has closed its acquisition of Talend Inc., which was announced in January.

The merged companies will be led by Qlik Chief Executive Mike Capone (pictured), who has spearheaded a campaign to build a data integration, data quality and analytics presence in large part through 10 acquisitions over the past five years. Both Qlik and Talend are owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo LP.

Qlik is already in the data integration business, but Talend was appealing for its focus on data quality, said Drew Clarke, who will head up the new data business unit. “They have strong depth in ETL [extract/transform/load] capabilities but more interesting has been their status as a leader in quality,” he said. “It’s the trust and veracity of data that increases confidence in decision-making.”

Enterprise Strategy Group Principal Analyst Mike Leone said Talend’s technology is complementary to Qlik’s. “I believe Talend’s data inventory serves as a more robust cataloging option than what’s delivered through Qlik today,” he said. “And I feel Talend’s governance story is more mature specifically as it relates to data integration.”

Talend’s ETL expertise is particularly helpful in addressing data engineering productivity issues, said Brendan Grady, who will run Qlik’s analytics business. “One of the biggest challenges with analytics is data preparation,” he said. “Talend brings an interesting angle that is scalable and can be used for data scientists and business analysts.”

Qlik didn’t say if any layoffs are planned as a result of the integration of the company but Clarke said “We’re bringing members of the Talend senior executive team into the fold.”

Talend has been through a tumultuous few years. It went public in 2018 but was taken private in the sale to Thoma Bravo three years later. Its CEO resigned early this year after three years on the job.

Clarke said Qlik will bring stability to the business. He noted that Capone has led Qlik for five years and several other senior officers have more than 10 years of experience with the company.

ESG’s Leone said Talend could turn out to be the jewel in Qlik’s data integration crown. “I could see a scenario where the Talend organization leads all of data integration, absorbing much of Qlik’s existing presence in the market,” he said.

Photo: Qlik