Cisco today announced it completed the acquisition of Splunk. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco acquired Splunk for $157 per share in cash, representing approximately $28 billion in equity value.
The transaction is expected to be cash flow positive (excluding certain acquisition-related and other items) and non-GAAP gross margin accretive in Cisco’s fiscal year 2025, and non-GAAP EPS accretive in fiscal year 2026. Additionally, it will accelerate Cisco’s revenue growth and non-GAAP gross margin expansion.
NASDAQ was notified by Cisco and Splunk of the completion of the acquisition and requested that NASDAQ file a notification of delisting with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on Splunk’s behalf. Splunk’s common stock ceased trading on NASDAQ before the opening of trading today.
The combination of Cisco and Splunk will provide customers with:
a. Better security – A highly comprehensive security solution for threat prevention, detection, investigation, and response for organisations of any size, utilising cloud, network, and endpoint traffic for unparalleled visibility.
b. Better observability- A highly comprehensive full-stack observability solution for delivering amazing digital experiences across a multi-cloud hybrid environment.
c. Better networking -A leading secure networking solution delivered on intelligent, resilient, and continually optimized network infrastructure.
d. Better AI – Cisco’s networking portfolio –– combined with enhanced security, full-stack observability, and a comprehensive data platform –– empowers customers to securely harness the power of AI throughout their organizations and applications.
e. Better economics – Cisco and Splunk’s platform approach will help our customers consolidate numerous point products—delivering better business outcomes and reducing costs.
Cisco and Splunk also bring together global developer and partner communities with extensive experience extending security, observability, and data platform capabilities with pre-packaged applications and solutions for customers.
“Uniting Splunk and Cisco will bring tremendous value to our joint customers worldwide,” said Gary Steele, Executive Vice President, and General Manager, Splunk. “The combination of Cisco and Splunk will provide truly comprehensive visibility and insights across an organisation’s entire digital footprint, delivering an unprecedented level of resilience through the most extensive and powerful security and observability product portfolio on the market.”
Effective use of the right data at massive scale is critical to enable the meaningful benefits of AI and help organisations drive outcomes never before possible.
Cisco believes truly reap the benefits of AI, organisations need the infrastructure to power it, the data to develop it, a security platform to protect it, and an observability platform to monitor and manage it in real-time. Cisco will be able to do all four together.
“Cisco and Splunk is a transformative combination that will allow customers to do things that weren’t possible before,” said Stephen Elliot, Group Vice President, I&O, Cloud Operations, and DevOps at IDC. “With the close, Cisco has created a unique set of solutions for networking, security, and operations executives in the market. When you add that to their channel and AI investments, customers should be considering the higher levels of business value that can now be unlocked.”
“Accenture congratulates Cisco on the acquisition of Splunk,” said Julie Sweet, Chair and CEO Accenture. “We have enjoyed long-term partnerships with both companies and look forward to the opportunities this collaboration presents to our clients in the future.
