Cisco Buying Splunk for $28 Billion

<p><strong><span class&equals;"legendSpanClass"><span class&equals;"xn-location">SAN JOSE <&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;strong>&&num;8212&semi; Cisco is buying San Francisco-based cybersecurity company Splunk for <span class&equals;"xn-money">&dollar;157<&sol;span> per share in cash&comma; or about &dollar;28 billion&period; Upon close of the deal&comma; Splunk President and CEO <span class&equals;"xn-person">Gary Steele<&sol;span> will join Cisco&&num;8217&semi;s Executive Leadership Team reporting to Chair and CEO <span class&equals;"xn-person">Chuck Robbins<&sol;span>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Shares in Splunk closed Wednesday at &dollar;119&period;59 and were up 25&percnt; on Thursday trading&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The acquisition builds on Splunk&&num;8217&semi;s heritage of helping organizations enhance their digital resilience and will accelerate Cisco&&num;8217&semi;s strategy to securely connect everything to make anything possible&period; The combination of these two established leaders in AI&comma; security and observability will help make organizations more secure and resilient&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;re excited to bring Cisco and Splunk together&period; Our combined capabilities will drive the next generation of AI-enabled security and observability&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said <span class&equals;"xn-person">Chuck Robbins<&sol;span>&comma; chair and CEO of Cisco&period; &&num;8220&semi;From threat detection and response to threat prediction and prevention&comma; we will help make organizations of all sizes more secure and resilient&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Uniting with Cisco represents the next phase of Splunk&&num;8217&semi;s growth journey&comma; accelerating our mission to help organizations worldwide become more resilient&comma; while delivering immediate and compelling value to our shareholders&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said <span class&equals;"xn-person">Gary Steele<&sol;span>&comma; president and CEO of Splunk&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Together&comma; 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&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re thrilled to join forces with a long-time and trusted partner that shares our passion for innovation and world-class customer experience&comma; and we expect our community of Splunk employees will benefit from even greater opportunities as we bring together two respected and purpose-driven organizations&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Steele added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Splunk&&num;8217&semi;s security capabilities complement Cisco&&num;8217&semi;s existing portfolio&comma; and together&comma; will provide leading security analytics and coverage from devices to applications to clouds&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The deal is expected to close by the third quarter of 2024&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;