Reports: Citrix May Be Up For Sale Again

Citrix Systems once again is looking to see if someone would be interested in buying the company, according to a Bloomberg News report published Monday.

The virtualization vendor headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. is being advised by Goldman Sachs as it explores a potential deal, Bloomberg reported.

It's not clear if Citrix is looking to be acquired by another tech company, or a private equity firm.

[Related: New Citrix Channel Chief On How Partners Will Finally Walk In The Cloud]

This isn't the first time Citrix has tested the market. In September of 2015, the company considered a sale, with some reports pegging Dell as a potential buyer.

The sale of the company in its entirety didn’t materialize back then. But the Citrix makeover did get rolling later in 2015 when it revealed plans to spin-off the GoTo line of products into a separate, publicly traded company.

Citrix shares rose just before the Nasdaq closed Monday on news of the report.

The stock jumped from just above $79 at 3:30 p.m. ET to almost $87 by 3:40 p.m. Citrix shares closed Monday up $5.40 (6.79%) to $84.93. That response to the Bloomberg story shot Citrix' market capitalization above $13 billion for the first time in the company's history.

Elliott Management, being driven by portfolio manager Jesse Cohn who now sits on the Citrix board, has established itself as the rare activist investor in the tech space. In June of 2015, the New York hedge fund declared its 7.1 percent stake in Citrix in an SEC letter that also laid out a comprehensive set of demands on the company.

Citrix entered into a "cooperation" agreement with the investor.

Citrix CEO Kirill Tataranov, who came to the company about a year ago, praised the relationship with Elliott and Jesse Cohn to CRN during the company's Synergy event in January, saying all parties were on the same page and had the same vision for the company.