Cisco's $28B Splunk Acquisition Signals Continued SaaS Take-Private Trend

Cisco announced a $28B acquisition of Splunk at a 30% premium, continuing a trend of SaaS take-privates including New Relic, Qualtrics, and Software AG. Splunk demonstrates strong fundamentals with $3.64B revenue growing at 37%, 77.7% gross margins, and top-quartile sales efficiency, though trading at a 4.2x forward multiple below market comparables.