By Dhirendra Tripathi

Investing.com – Citrix Systems stock (NASDAQ:) was up 8% in Tuesday’s premarket trade after a Bloomberg report said that activist investor Elliott Management and Vista Equity Partners are considering a joint bid for the company.

The report states that talks are in an initial stage. Vista Equity, which is a private equity company focused on tech companies, could use Tibco from its portfolio as part the bid.

Bloomberg reported in September that Citrix had been working with advisors to look into a possible sale. After Elliott took a 10% share in the company, talks began. Citrix is valued at just $10 billion.

Elliott has a reputation for chasing companies that seek to improve shareholder returns. It includes reshaping the top management, requiring buybacks and demanding better capital allocation.

Citrix was a specialist in remote access solutions. This specialty was very popular during the pandemic. It is likely that it will remain in demand once work-from-home models become mainstream. The company switched to subscriptions, however, which has limited its revenue growth.

Third-quarter total revenue of $778 million was up a mere 1% year-over-year. This was after another quarter of disappointing revenue growth, which increased 2% over the previous year.

The company’s stock price has suffered, falling 37% in a year when the is up around 23%.