Cisco Snaps Up OpenDNS

Cisco said Tuesday (June 30) that it would buy cloud security player OpenDNS for $635 million in a deal that will be paid in a combination of cash, equity awards and retention-based incentives. The deal is slated to close in the first quarter of FY2016.

The latest deal, a move that pushes Cisco further into cloud, also positions the networking giant beyond its traditional bastion of hardware. OpenDNS is essentially a SaaS provider. Cisco company blog posts noted that the deal gives Cisco added security layers tied to its cloud offerings.

In one of those blog posts, authored by Hilton Romanski, head of Cisco’s business development, it was stated that “the acquisition will extend our ability to provide customers enhanced visibility and threat protection for unmonitored and potentially unsecure entry points into the network and to quickly and efficiently deploy and integrate these capabilities as part of their defense architecture.”

Citing Crunchbase, TechCrunch reported that OpenDNS raised $51.3 million to date before the acquisition announcement.

TechCrunch reported that the OpenDNS team will join the Cisco Security Business Group.

OpenDNS has over 50 million users through its free platform and boasts another 10,000 paying customers. The company has claimed that as much as 2 percent of the world’s DNS traffic runs across its two dozen servers. The enterprise product was launched in 2009.

Cisco indicated that it will continue to offer the free version of OpenDNS once the deal closes. “The OpenDNS free DNS services will not be affected. Cisco is committed to OpenDNS’ consumer and enterprise DNS services. The OpenDNS products will transition into Cisco upon close of the acquisition,” a spokesperson wrote by email to TechCrunch.

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