(Bloomberg) — Splunk Inc. jumped as much as 16% in late trading on a report that Cisco Systems Inc. made an offer of more than $20 billion for the software company.
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The shares climbed as high as $133.25 following the Wall Street Journal story, which cited unidentified people familiar with the situation. The stock had closed at $114.51 on Friday, down about 1% this year.
Cisco, which is set to report its latest results next week, has been expanding its software and services — an attempt to rely less on its hallmark networking hardware. The company gave a lackluster forecast for revenue in November, hurt by a shortage of components.
Cisco declined to comment, while Splunk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cisco has traditionally generated the bulk of its revenue from equipment that forms the backbone of computer networks, but that’s been changing. Revenue from subscriptions and software will reach 50% of Cisco’s total by fiscal 2025, the company predicted in September.
Cisco slipped in late trading, falling less than 1%. It was down 15% this year through the close.
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