The publicly traded big data software company Alteryx Inc. is reportedly exploring the possibility of a sale to private equity firms, having seen its market capitalization fall by almost half over the last 12 months.

A report by Reuters says Alteryx is working with the investment bank Qatalyst Partners LP on discussions with potential acquirers, which include a number of private equity firms.

Alteryx has a market cap of about $2.5 billion, but that is down almost 50% from its all-time high valuation. The company has faced strong competition from rivals such as Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp., and has struggled to win new business amid a tough economy that has seen enterprises slash their technology spending.

The company sells tools for performing extract, transform and load operations, otherwise known as ETL. Its software is used by enterprises to prepare massive volumes of data for analysis. The Alteryx Cloud platform provides functionality around data cleansing, data mining and geospatial analytics, and offers baked-in connectivity to business intelligence tools such as Experian and Tableau.

Unfortunately for Alteryx, many customers have decided they can afford to cut back on its services. The company acknowledged this reality back in April, announcing it would undergo a workforce reduction plan that would shed about 300 jobs from an employee base of 2,900. In its most recent financial report last month, Alteryx beat Wall Street’s expectations on second-quarter earnings and revenue, but its third-quarter and full-year guidance came up well short, and its stock fell more than 22% in a single day.

One potential buyer might be Insight Partners, an early investor in Alteryx that has retained a 1.5% stake in the company and is also represented on its board of directors. Reuters said Insight Partners has recused itself from sale deliberations, as it is interested in participating in the buyout.

Alteryx co-founder and Executive Chairman Dean Stoecker, who controls the company through dual-class shares that give him 51% of all outstanding shares’ voting power, despite only owning 11.5% in total, is said to be considering rolling his stake into any deal, sources told Reuters.

However, there is no guarantee that a sale will proceed. To date, no interested party has met Alteryx’s valuation expectations, and unless they do, the company might opt against any sale, the sources told Reuters.

News of the talks did at least provide a boost to Alteryx, as its stock rose more than 14% in the wake of Reuter’s publishing its report.

Alteryx reportedly serves more than 8,300 enterprises, including the likes of Coca-Cola Co., Walmart Inc., Ford Motor Co. and Vodafone Plc.

Photo: Alteryx/Flickr