Cisco intends to acquire Splunk for $157 per share in cash, representing approximately $28-billion in equity value.
When the acquisition closes, Splunk president and CEO Gary Steele will join Cisco’s executive leadership team reporting to chair and CEO Chuck Robbins.
The acquisition builds on Splunk’s heritage of helping organisations enhance their digital resilience and will accelerate Cisco’s strategy to securely connect everything to make anything possible. The combination of these two established leaders in AI, security and observability will help make organisations more secure and resilient.
“We’re excited to bring Cisco and Splunk together. Our combined capabilities will drive the next generation of AI-enabled security and observability,” says Chuck Robbins, chair and CEO of Cisco. “From threat detection and response to threat prediction and prevention, we will help make organisations of all sizes more secure and resilient.”
“Uniting with Cisco represents the next phase of Splunk’s growth journey, accelerating our mission to help organisations worldwide become more resilient, while delivering immediate and compelling value to our shareholders,” said Gary Steele, president and CEO of Splunk.
“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. 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 organisations,” Steele adds.
Cisco and Splunk have complementary capabilities in AI, security and observability.