Cisco Dishes $453M for Georgia Cybersecurity Company Lancope

This week, Cisco announced its intent to acquire Lancope, the privately held network security company located in Alpharetta – Atlanta’s tech neighbor to the north. Cisco will pay $452.5 million in cash and assumed equity awards, plus additional retention-based incentives for Lancope employees to join the Silicon Valley giant. 

The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of fiscal year 2016. With it, Cisco gains Lancope’s impressive network behavior analytics – security intelligence that helps protect companies against top cyber security threats.

“Cisco is committed to helping organizations defend their networks and devices. Together with Lancope, our combined solutions can help turn a customer’s entire network into a security sensor,” said Rob Salvagno, VP of Cisco’s corporate development, in a statement.

Cisco is gaining quite a robust set of security solutions through Lancope, which uses its “NetFlow” and “StealthWatch” systems to track networks’ suspicious and erratic activity in real time. Lancope presently supports nearly 45 million hosts among its customers, including Cisco, HP, the State of Connecticut, Gannett, the Stanford School of Medicine, and other (top secret) organizations unlisted for security reasons.

For more information about the acquisition, read this blog post by Lancope CEO Mike Potts.