Splunk Inc. is a software company specializing in machine data and security. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in San Francisco, CA, they are a rapidly growing company and a major player in the cybersecurity industry. With over 35 issued patents in the AI Cybersecurity sector and a $31.98B (SPLK) market cap, Splunk is well-positioned in the space.

These facts together make Splunk a very attractive acquisition target for larger tech companies looking to expand their presence in the sector such as Cisco. Cisco would be able to utilize Splunk's experience in data management to offer a more complete solution and expand its position in cybersecurity, which may be even more valuable with the huge need for cybersecurity in the midst of the pandemic to facilitate remote work. It is also noteworthy that Cisco already has a partnership with Splunk, making it even easier for them to integrate the products together if Cisco were to acquire them.

Another company that could benefit from acquiring Splunk would be Microsoft. Microsoft has a known interest in expanding the cybersecurity side of their business, best evidenced by their commitment to investing over $1B per year into cybersecurity research and their recent acquisition of CyberX, a security startup focused on IoT solutions. Another reason this acquisition would make sense is that quite simply, Microsoft has plenty of money for it. As of this past November, Microsoft was estimated to have $136.6B of cash on hand. This means that if they acquired Splunk they would still have plenty of cash left on hand for other investments, and in return for their investment, they would own one of the hottest security companies in the sector today. 

Examine Splunk's position in the Magic Number® AI Cybersecurity Patent Forecast®.