Cisco and Splunk Have Discussed Acquisition Deal

Cisco Programs, the expertise conglomerate, has held discussions with the software program firm Splunk about shopping for it, though no deal is at present on the desk, two individuals acquainted with the matter informed The New York Occasions on Friday.

A deal could not occur in any respect, but when talks resume, Cisco might pay greater than $20 billion for Splunk, one of many individuals stated.

Splunk, whose inventory worth has fallen by 30 % since its chief govt, Doug Merritt, unexpectedly stepped down in November, has a market capitalization of round $18 billion. Cisco’s market capitalization is $227 billion.

The individuals requested anonymity as a result of the knowledge is confidential. Cisco didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, whereas a spokesperson for Splunk stated the corporate didn’t touch upon rumors or hypothesis. The Wall Avenue Journal reported the potential deal earlier on Friday.

Splunk — named after spelunking, the game of cave exploring — mines information for insights, together with safety threats, a enterprise that grew in significance because the coronavirus pandemic shortly pressured many staff on-line. It has extra not too long ago sought to shift towards cloud computing and meet up with its rivals, like Datadog, that began their enterprise within the cloud. In June, the private-equity agency Silver Lake invested $1 billion in Splunk to assist with that transition.

Cisco is called a serial acquirer, successfully utilizing acquisitions as a complement to analysis and growth. Its previous offers embody Acacia, a maker of optical community elements; Luxtera, a semiconductor firm; and ThousandEyes, a cloud intelligence firm. Its chief govt, Chuck Robbins, informed analysts in December that Cisco would proceed to search for acquisitions in safety.

Expertise has been a hotbed of mergers and acquisitions exercise over the previous yr, as hovering inventory costs have left corporations flush with money. Microsoft stated final month that it was planning to accumulate the online game firm Activision Blizzard for practically $70 billion, and Salesforce acquired the office software program firm Slack final yr for $27.7 billion.