Bloomberg
Cisco Systems Inc., the biggest maker of networking equipment, agreed to acquire Sourcefire Inc. for about $2.7 billion, adding anti-hacking technology used extensively by the U.S. government.
Cisco will pay $76 a share in cash, the San Jose, California-based company said today, a 29 percent premium over Sourcefire’s closing price yesterday. Cisco said the deal value includes outstanding equity awards and retention incentives.
Chief Executive Officer John Chambers is expanding in cybersecurity to fend off competition from smaller rivals such as Palo Alto Networks Inc. and Fortinet Inc., which make Internet firewalls. Sourcefire’s intrusion-detection products may help Cisco win more business from corporate and government customers seeking to beef up network protections as hacker attacks become more sophisticated and widespread.