Splunk acquires Caspida

Splunk Inc., San Francisco, CA-based provider of the leading software platform for real-time Operational Intelligence, announced on July 9 that it has acquired Caspida, Inc., a leading innovator in machine learning and behavioral analytics. Under the terms of the agreement, Splunk has acquired all of the outstanding stock of Caspida for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $190 million, including approximately $127 million in cash and $63 million in restricted Splunk securities.

The combination of Splunk® and Caspida™ technology revolutionizes the security market by unifying world-class breach response with breach detection, according to the company. Recent high-profile breaches show virtually all attacks happen with compromised credentials, and automated detection leveraging machine learning is the future for detecting known and unknown threats from insider and external attackers. Splunk customers now have out-of-the-box user behavioral analytics to help detect, respond to and mitigate these threats. This combination of Splunk’s leading machine data platform with Caspida software provides the most comprehensive security analytics solution available today.

“Splunk built its reputation in security by enabling customers to more effectively respond to breaches. With this acquisition, our customers can now also better detect advanced threats – the breaches that are becoming more complex and severe with each passing day,” said Haiyan Song, senior vice president of security markets, Splunk. “With Caspida, Splunk accelerates its focus on solving advanced threats – both external and from insiders – by shining a light on those who are wrongfully using valid credentials to freely and unpredictably exploit systems they have accessed. By addressing the entire lifecycle of known and unknown advanced threats, and by providing a platform to detect, respond to, and automate actions, Splunk has further reinforced its position as the security nerve center.”

Attacks with trusted access are often not detected by existing security approaches. Whether gaining access through compromised accounts/systems or leveraging existing privileges to conduct malicious activities, attackers often do not need to deploy additional malware. These activities are dynamic and attackers will find ways to evade traditional security technologies. Even if detected, security analysts must find supporting evidence, often using a kill chain methodology to identify the progression of activities from intrusion to lateral movement to exfiltration. Caspida has innovated the use of data science and machine-learning algorithms to detect advanced threats and malicious insiders – presenting the most meaningful set of threats for SOC analysts and incident responders.

“We founded Caspida with a vision of applying data science to help solve the most pressing cybersecurity challenges – advanced threats and insider threats,” said Muddu Sudhakar, CEO, Caspida. “By analyzing machine data and using data science to detect meaningful anomalous behavior of users, devices and entities, Caspida has solved a problem that previously required significant manpower and expensive, do-it-yourself toolsets. We are very excited to join the Splunk family and deliver new detection capabilities to customers.”

“The majority of purchase price consideration will be paid from our existing cash. Total equity consideration plus Caspida employee retention incentives will result in less than 1 percent total dilution from this transaction,” said Dave Conte, chief financial officer, Splunk. “Operationally, we plan to spend this year integrating the technology and expect it to contribute to top line revenues next year. We will absorb the expense base of Caspida this year, and we reaffirm our current full fiscal year 2016 revenue, non-GAAP operating margin, and operating cash flow guidance.”

Source: Splunk Inc.