Splunk gains amid standstill agreement with investor Hellman & Friedman
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Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLK) rose 5.2% after private equity firm Hellman & Friedman late Friday agreed to a standstill agreement with the cloud-services company.
Under the agreement, Splunk (SPLK) agreed to provide certain confidential information to H&F, according to an 8-K filing. In turn, H&F agreed that it won't participate in any âproxy contestâ or other solicitation of proxies. The agreement last for six months.
The H&F state is now new as the PE firm first disclosed a 7.5% stake in March and that has grown to 7.9%, according to the latest 13D filing from Friday. Hellman & Friedman started buying shares in Splunk (SPLK) in December after the company's shares plummeted when the company's former CEO resigned in November, according to a
WSJ report.
The standstill agreement may indicate a desire for H&F to "do further diligence with an intent to perhaps take Splunk fully private in 6 months," Raymond James analyst Adam Tindle wrote in a note earlier Monday. 
The agreement could also indicate the PE firm has concerns over Spunk's (SPLK) current business trends, strategic roadmap and/or forecasting, according to Tindle.
Recall in February the WSJ reported that Cisco (CSCO) had made a more than $20B acquisition offer for Splunk, though the companies weren't in active talks.
The Splunk standstill agreement also comes as competitor New Relic (NEWR) is also reportedly said to be exploring a potential sale following interest from private equity shops, according to a WSJ story in July. New Relic itself has been under pressure from activist investor JANA Partners and in June announced a cooperation agreement with the activist.
Splunk is set to present at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.