Cisco’s $28 bln spelunking yields dicey deal

Splunk

21/09/2023 15:37

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions
expressed are his own.)
    By Robert Cyran
       NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Buying data
and security outfit Splunk could increase recurring revenue at
the $215 bln networking giant. Cisco is also paying a low
multiple. But the two don’t have much overlap, and Splunk’s
cloud-based business needs work. Cisco bears execution risk,
which hinges on growth.    
    Full view will be published shortly.
    Follow @rob_cyran on X
         
    CONTEXT NEWS 
Cisco Systems said on Sept. 21 it had agreed to buy Splunk for
$157 a share in cash, or $28 billion, its biggest ever deal.
That is a 31% premium to where shares in the software company
closed on Sept. 20.
    Splunk makes software that monitors, searches and visualizes
large collections of data.

 (Editing by Lauren Silva Laughlin, Sharon Lam and Aditya
Sriwastsav)
 ((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
click on  CYRAN/ 
SIGN UP FOR BREAKINGVIEWS EMAIL ALERTS https://bit.ly/BVsubscribe
 | robert.cyran@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
robert.cyran.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))