Cisco set to acquire Splunk in $28 billion deal

Cisco has announced it has reached an agreement to acquire Splunk in a deal worth $28 billion. 

The acquisition, which is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2024, will see Splunk president and chief executive Gary Steele join Cisco’s executive leadership team. 

The deal “builds on Splunk’s heritage of helping organizations enhance their digital resilience”, the firm said in a statement today, and will play a key role in accelerating the tech giant’s current market strategy. 

Cisco added that the motivation behind the deal was to combine both firms’ “complementary capabilities” in artificial intelligence and cyber security. 

In particular, Splunk’s security capabilities are said to align with and complement Cisco’s existing portfolio in the space. 

The deal will see the firm accelerate the development of its security analytics capabilities and expand coverage “from devices to applications to cloud”. 

Cisco and Splunk have deep ties reaching back over a decade, with the former’s CiscoWorks network management platform underpinned by Splunk analytics capabilities. 

“The union of these two organizations will allow for greater investments in new solutions, accelerated innovation, and increased global scale to support the needs of customers of all sizes,” Cisco said. 

“We’re excited to bring Cisco and Splunk together,” said Chuck Robbins, chair and CEO at Cisco. 

“Our combined capabilities will drive the next generation of AI-enabled security and observability. From threat detection and response to threat prediction and prevention, we will help make organizations of all sizes more secure and resilient.”

Gary Steele, president and CEO at Splunk, said the deal “represents the next phase of Splunk’s growth journey”, adding that the tie-up will create an industry-leading organization. 

“Together, we will form a global security and observability leader that harnesses the power of data and AI to deliver excellent customer outcomes and transform the industry,” he said. 

“We’re thrilled to join forces with a long-time and trusted partner that shares our passion for innovation and world-class customer experience, and we expect our community of Splunk employees will benefit from even greater opportunities as we bring together two respected and purpose-driven organizations,” Steele added.

The deal marks the fifth major acquisition of the year so far for Cisco as the firm looks to bolster its cloud security and AI capabilities. 

In May, the firm acquired threat detection firm Armorblox for an undisclosed fee. 

Armorblox had raised more than $46 million in funding to date at the time of acquisition, and had recently completed a venture capital round led by SentinelOne Ventures in September 2022. 

This was followed by deals for identity management platform Oort, along with a dual acquisition of cloud security firms, Lightspin and Valtix.