Highlights:

  • As per Cisco, the data collected by its Talos unit will be accessible within Splunk’s analytics platform, providing companies with a comprehensive view of the cybersecurity risks they encounter.
  • AI is a key focus of the integration effort, with both Cisco and Splunk offering AI features in their cybersecurity products to expedite issue analysis.

Recently, Cisco Systems acquired Splunk  for USD 28 billion that marks the largest purchase in the networking giant’s four-decade history.

Speculation about a potential acquisition surfaced in early 2022. Cisco formally sealed the agreement approximately 18 months afterward, in September 2023, offering USD 157 per Splunk share. The all-cash deal assessed the software company at a 31% premium compared to its previous unaffected stock value.

Splunk offers a widely-used data analytics platform utilized by businesses to gather data produced by their technological systems. This software effectively analyzes the collected information to identify cyber threats and investigate the root causes of technical problems such as system outages; with a user base exceeding 15,000 organizations, including the majority of Fortune 100 companies, Splunk’s platform is highly regarded in the industry.

Over time, the company has broadened its scope to encompass various related domains. It markets a product named Attack Analyzer, facilitating cybersecurity teams in examining malware within a segregated sandbox environment to comprehend its operations. Additionally, Splunk SOAR, another solution, is capable of autonomously identifying and addressing cyber threats.

Cisco provides a range of its own cybersecurity products. In a recent blog post, Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, and Gary Steele, General Manager of Splunk, outlined that the breach prevention technologies of both companies will be integrated following the completion of the transaction.

A fundamental aspect of the strategy involves Cisco’s Talos business unit, a key component of the networking giant. Talos gathers threat intelligence, including details about malicious domains and vulnerabilities exploited by hackers for cyberattacks. Cisco states that the data collected by Talos will be integrated into Splunk’s analytics platform, providing companies with a comprehensive understanding of the cybersecurity threats they encounter.

Cisco intends to apply a comparable methodology to the data gathered by its breach prevention tools within the environments of its customers. Robbins and Steele elaborated in today’s blog post, “We intend to enable Splunk’s market-leading SIEM and SOAR platform to utilize cloud, network, and endpoint analytics available from Cisco’s security portfolio, thereby providing customers with new ways to detect, investigate, and respond to threats that can only be identified via lateral movement in the network.”

Artificial intelligence stands as another key focus of the technology integration endeavor. Both Cisco and Splunk offer AI functionalities within their individual cybersecurity products to assist administrators in swiftly analyzing potential issues. These functionalities will be merged to provide a unified user interface.

Robbins and Steele detailed, “We will drive new innovations with a unified data platform that integrates application, fraud, network, multi-cloud, security, user, and other data sources to address cyber, technical, and business risks throughout the entire portfolio.”

Before the acquisition, Splunk played an active role in the open-source community. Among its notable contributions was a tool facilitating the integration of OpenTelemetry and eBPF, two widely adopted open-source technologies for application monitoring in enterprises. Cisco has stated its commitment to continuing substantial contributions to OpenTelemetry, eBPF, and various other open-source initiatives post-acquisition.

In September last year, the company forecasted that Splunk will boost its annual recurring revenues by approximately USD 4 billion. Cisco anticipates that the acquisition will enhance its adjusted gross margin in the fiscal year 2025 and its adjusted earnings per share in the subsequent year.