Cisco Will Buy OpenDNS For Over $600 Million

Cisco Systems, Inc.CSCOOpenDNS has engineered a predictive security solution that anticipates and stops malicious activity before it threatens a network. Based in San Francisco, California, the company sells its services to Fortune 50 companies, small businesses, schools, and hundreds of thousands of homes. According to a Cisco press release, the acquisition will "boost" it's Security Everywhere approach by adding "broad visibility and threat intelligence" from OpenDNS' cloud delivered platform. Cisco will pay $635 million in cash and assumed equity awards, plus retention based incentives for OpenDNS. "OpenDNS' cloud platform offers security delivered in a Software-as-a- Service (SaaS) model, making it quick and easy for customers to deploy and integrate as part of their defense architecture or incident response strategies," Cisco noted in its press release. "By providing comprehensive threat awareness and pervasive visibility, the combination of Cisco and OpenDNS will enhance advanced threat protection across the full attack continuum -- before, during and after an attack." "As more people, processes, data and things become connected, opportunities for security breaches and malicious threats grow exponentially when away from secure enterprise networks," said Hilton Romanski, Cisco chief technology and strategy officer. "OpenDNS has a strong team with deep security expertise and key technology that complements Cisco's security vision. Together, we will help customers protect their extended network wherever the user is and regardless of the device." The OpenDNS team will be absorbed into Cisco's Security Business Group organization. Cisco expects the transaction to close in the first quarter of fiscal 2016, subject to customary closing conditions.