Splunk — BrandWiki

Splunk

Overview

Splunk Inc.

type	Subsidiary
traded as	(2012–2024)
founded	October 2003
founders	Michael Baum Rob Das Erik Swan
hq location	San Francisco, California, U.S.
key people	Gary Steele (Chairman & CEO)
industry	Software Cloud computing
products	Splunk Cloud, Splunk Enterprise, Splunk SOAR, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk IT Service Intelligence (ITSI), Splunk O11y, Splunkbase,VictorOps
revenue	US$3.65 billion (2023)
operating income	US$-236 million (2023)
net income	US$-278 million (2023)
assets	US$6.34 billion (2023)
equity	US$-111 million (2023)
parent	Cisco
num employees	≈ 8,000 (January 2023)
footnotes	Financials ‡R1R‡

Splunk Inc. is a subsidiary of CISCO Systems that produces software for indexing, searching, and analyzing machine-generated data, allowing for the creation of dashboards, alerts, graphs, and reports to monitor system health and to detect and respond to issues in real time.[2][3][4] With a focus on cyber security and observability, Splunk describes its on-premises software and SaaS products as SIEM, SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response), and observability solutions.[5]

Splunk was acquired by Cisco in September 2023 for $28 billion in an all-cash deal.[6] The transaction was completed on March 18, 2024.[7]

History

Founding & early years

Michael Baum, Rob Das[9] and Erik Swan co-founded Splunk Inc in 2003.[10] Venture firms August Capital, Sevin Rosen, Ignition Partners and JK&B Capital backed the company.

By 2007, Splunk had raised US$40 million.[11] It became profitable in 2009.[12] In 2012, Splunk had its initial public offering, trading under NASDAQ symbol SPLK.[13]

Company growth

In September 2013 the company acquired BugSense, a mobile-device data-analytics company.[14] BugSense provides "a mobile analytics platform used by developers to improve app performance and improve quality." It supplied a "software developer kit" to give developers access to data analytics from mobile devices that it managed from its scalable cloud platform.[15] The acquisition amount was undisclosed.

In December 2013, Splunk acquired Cloudmeter, a provider of network data capture technologies.[16] In June 2015, Splunk acquired the software company Metafor that uses machine learning technology to analyze data generated from IT infrastructure and applications.[17] In July 2015, Splunk acquired Caspida, a cybersecurity startup, for US$190 million.[18]

In October 2015, Splunk sealed a "cybersecurity alliance" with U.S. government security contractor Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. to offer combined cyber threat detection and intelligence-analysis technology.[19]

In 2016, Splunk pledged to donate $100 million in software licenses, training, support, education, and volunteerism for nonprofits and schools over a 10-year period.[20]

According to Glassdoor, it was the fourth highest-paying company for employees in the United States in April 2017.[21][22] In May 2017, Splunk acquired Drastin, a software company that provides search-based analytics for enterprises.[23]

In September 2017, Splunk acquired SignalSense which developed cloud-based data collection and breach detection software.[24] Splunk announced it was using machine learning about that time.[25]

In October 2017, Splunk acquired technology and intellectual property from smaller rival Rocana.[26] On April 9, 2018, Splunk acquired Phantom Cyber Corporation for approximately US$350 million.[27] In April 2018, it reached US$14.8 billion of market capitalization. On June 11, 2018, Splunk announced its acquisition of VictorOps, a DevOps incident management startup, for US$120 million.[28] In July 2018 Splunk acquired KryptonCloud, an industrial IoT and analytics SaaS company.[29] Splunk acquired the cloud monitoring company, SignalFx, in October 2019 for $1.05 billion.[30] Two weeks later on September 4, 2019, Splunk acquired Omnition—an early-stage startup specializing in distributed tracing—for an undisclosed amount.[31]

Splunk also announced the launch of its corporate venture fund, Splunk Ventures—a $100 million Innovation Fund and a $50 million Social Impact Fund to invest in early-stage startups.[32]

Recent history

Splunk reported its fiscal 2021 fourth-quarter revenue of $745.1 million. For all of fiscal 2021, Splunk reported revenue of $2.23 billion.[33] On November 15, 2021, Doug Merritt stepped down as president and CEO. Graham Smith, Splunk's chairman since 2019, took over as interim CEO.[34][35] On March 2, 2022, Splunk named Gary Steele, previously at Proofpoint, as its CEO and the successor to interim chief Graham Smith effective April 2022.[36][37]

Cisco acquisition

On September 21, 2023 Cisco announced it would acquire Splunk for $28 billion in an all-cash deal.[6] In November 2023, the company announced layoffs affecting 7% or 500 of its employees, following an earlier reduction of 300 staff in the same year. CEO Gary Steele clarified in a letter to employees, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, that the decision was not related to the Cisco deal.[38]

In April 2024, Splunk won an infringement case against Cribl Inc, a startup competitor, for copying enterprise data analysis software. The jury awarded Splunk $1 in damages.[39]

The acquisition of Splunk was completed in March 2024. It was the largest deal in Cisco's history.[40] At the time, Splunk had 1,100 patents, with clients such as Singapore Airlines