A semi-secretive, but widely watched data analytics firm partially backed by the CIA has decided against going public, for now.
A source at Palantir Technologies — the big data software company that boasts some of the most important clients in government and business — told CNBC "we have no plans to go public anytime soon."
Among the reasons: The company has no trouble attracting financing, and going public would the force the company to disclose aspects of its business that it might prefer to keep out of the public eye, said Avivah Litan, analyst at Gartner.
Palantir has raised close to a billion dollars, its revenues are estimated to be nearly $500 million, and analysts peg its valuation north of $9 billion. The company's website says "we've doubled in size every year" since being founded in 2004.
Investors include Peter Thiel, Stanley Druckenmiller, and the CIA's In-Q-Tel venture fund. Forbes says Thiel—who made a fortune on Facebook after co-founding Paypal — has close to a 12 percent stake in Palantir, which would be worth close to $1 billion at its current valuation.
The company started when Thiel and a few Stanford engineers worked on software to track down Russian mafia syndicates that were defrauding Paypal. Thiel parlayed that piece of software known as "Igor" into the beginnings of the Palantir business.
(Read more: CIA-backed Palantir Technologies raises $107.5 million)
"Palantir's secret sauce is their ability to integrate data quickly, and the company has a very unique corporate culture. They have a lot of very bright young people who work weird hours and are part of an odd, Kool-Aid culture," said Litan.
The company charges its big clients a lot of money and doesn't have a traditional sales force. In one case, a young Palantir employee showed up at a major bank and said "you need to write us a check for a million dollars if you want us to work for you," Litan said.
While a third of its business is with big data and defense contracts with the U.S. government, its business with major banks like Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase is growing. Sources within the company say other clients include the Pentagon, the Justice Department, the NYPD and the LAPD. The company's financial forensic software helped the law firm that recovered eight out of every 13 dollars in the Madoff scandal.
— Mark Berniker and Matt Hunter, CNBC
Follow them on Twitter @markberniker and @MattMHunter.
