Cisco, global leader in IT and networking announced Thursday it agreed to buy analytics and artificial intelligence-powered cybersecurity firm Splunk for $28 billion, at $157 per share in cash. 

The acquisition builds on Splunk’s heritage of helping organizations enhance their digital resilience and will accelerate Cisco’s strategy to securely connect everything to make anything possible. The combination of these two established leaders in AI, security and observability will help make organizations more secure and resilient.

“We’re excited to bring Cisco and Splunk together. Our combined capabilities will drive the next generation of AI-enabled security and observability,” said Chuck Robbins, chair and CEO of Cisco. “From threat detection and response to threat prediction and prevention, we will help make organizations of all sizes more secure and resilient.”

“Uniting with Cisco represents the next phase of Splunk’s growth journey, accelerating our mission to help organizations worldwide become more resilient, while delivering immediate and compelling value to our shareholders. Together, we will form a global security and observability leader that harnesses the power of data and AI to deliver excellent customer outcomes and transform the industry. We’re thrilled to join forces with a long-time and trusted partner that shares our passion for innovation and world-class customer experience, and we expect our community of Splunk employees will benefit from even greater opportunities as we bring together two respected and purpose-driven organizations,” said Gary Steele, president and CEO of Splunk.

The two vendors will look to help enterprise customers tap these AI opportunities and gain visibility to their data. The acquisition is expected to be finalized by the end of the third quarter of next year, subject to regulatory approval, following which, Splunk President and CEO, Steele will be part of Cisco’s executive leadership team reporting to Robbins.

Cisco and Splunk’s complementary capabilities will provide observability across hybrid and multi-cloud environments enabling the company’s customers to deliver smooth application experiences that power their digital businesses. Cisco and Splunk are well positioned to help customers responsibly harness the power of AI given their substantial scale, visibility into data, and foundation of trust.