Cisco forks out $2.35bn for Duo – the acquisition train thumps on

Cisco has announced its intent to acquire Duo Security for $2.35 billion in its quest for more subscription based deals.

Michigan-based Duo Security was founded in 2010, growing to 700 employees with offices across the US and in London. The company’s cloud-based two-factor authentication is becoming a much more common tool for employees around the world who want to access sensitive information from multiple devices, in various locations. The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019.

Combining the words Cisco and Acquisition is not uncommon, as the business seems to believe acquisition is a much more efficient means to success than organic growth. This is the fourth acquisition to be announced by Cisco in 2018, with the company swallowing up another nine organizations across 2017 and another seven in 2016. Eleven were added to the mix in 2015.

“When we started Duo, the security industry was badly broken,” Duo CEO Dug Song wrote in a letter to employees. “Users were blamed and victims were shamed for what were really design failures in IT – or worse, vendors spent more time admiring attackers versus defeating them.

“The complexity of security products often introduced more problems than they solved, and for every dollar of product, twice as many dollars were spent on services to support them. A new philosophy and approach to security was needed; one that demonstrated respect for people, both in the design of the products and in how business is done. And so we formed Duo.”

The move itself is another step forward for Cisco which has been striving to prove its security credentials in the competitive world of cloud services. Aside from this acquisition, the networking giant has also brought OpenDNS, Sourcefire and Cloudlock into its armoury to bolster resources and offerings to customers. For the moment, the companies will continue to act as separate entities, with Song continuing as GM, though the business will fit into Cisco’s Networking and Security business led by EVP and GM David Goeckeler.

“I’m excited to welcome the Duo team to Cisco,” said Goeckeler in a blog post. “I’m even more excited about the impact as part of Cisco’s intent-based networking portfolio that Duo is going to make for customers deploying multi-cloud models.”

For Cisco, Duo fits into the intent-based networking strategy, adding another arrow to the quiver; identity and access. It does sound like a good fit for Cisco, as identity and access is becoming much more of a headache for CTOs around the world, especially considering the continuous flood of data breaches hitting the headlines. That said, acquiring Duo provides another step into the world of recurring revenues for the business, which is never a bad thing.