The story
Founding and early years
Michael Baum, Rob Das and Erik Swan co-founded Splunk Inc in 2003. Venture firms August Capital, Sevin Rosen, Ignition Partners and JK&B Capital backed the company.
By 2007, Splunk had raised US$40 million. It became profitable in 2009. In 2012, Splunk had its initial public offering, trading under NASDAQ symbol SPLK.
Company growth
Between 2013 and 2019, Splunk expanded by acquiring a series of companies focused on data analytics, cybersecurity, and observability, including: BugSense, Cloudmeter, Metafor, Caspida, Rocana, Phantom Cyber Corporation, VictorOps, KryptonCloud, SignalFx, Drastin, SignalSense, and Omnition.
During this time the company also formed partnerships, such as a "cybersecurity alliance" with U.S. government security contractor Booz Allen Hamilton in 2015, pledged to donate $100 million in software licenses, training, support, education, and volunteerism for nonprofits and schools over a 10-year period in 2016, and was recognized among the highest-paying companies for employees in the United States according to Glassdoor in 2017. In 2019, Splunk received FedRAMP authorization from the General Services Administration FedRAMP Program Management Office at the "moderate" level, sponsored by the International Trade Administration, enabling Splunk to sell to the federal government.
In 2020 Splunk 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.
On November 15, 2021, Doug Merritt stepped down as president and CEO. Graham Smith, Splunk's chairman since 2019, took over as interim CEO. 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.
Cisco acquisition
On September 21, 2023 Cisco announced it would acquire Splunk for $28 billion in an all-cash deal. 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.
The acquisition of Splunk was completed in March 2024. It was the largest deal in Cisco's history. At the time, Splunk had 1,100 patents, with clients such as Singapore Airlines, Papa John's, Heineken, and McLaren. Splunk continued under the same management, with pricing projected to stay the same.
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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.
In May 2024, former Splunk CEO Gary Steele was promoted to a Cisco executive, although Splunk continued to report to him. He remained Splunk general manager. Cisco's observability product development including its Cisco AppDynamics software was moved into Splunk after the integration.
In 2025, Splunk became a central element of Cisco's enterprise AI and security strategy following its integration into Cisco's software portfolio.
From Wikipedia’s article on Splunk, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8