Splunk

Founding & early years

Michael Baum, Rob Das and Erik Swan co-founded Splunk Inc in 2003. Venture firms August Capital, Sevin Rosen, Ignition Partners and JK&B Capital backed the company.

By 2007 Splunk had raised US$40 million. It became profitable in 2009. In 2012 Splunk had its initial public offering, trading under NASDAQ symbol SPLK.

Company growth

In September 2013 the company acquired BugSense, a mobile-device data-analytics company. BugSense provides "a mobile analytics platform used by developers to improve app performance and improve quality". It supplied a "software developer kit" to give developers access to data analytics from mobile devices that it managed from its scalable cloud platform. The acquisition amount was undisclosed.

In December 2013, Splunk acquired Cloudmeter, a provider of network data capture technologies.In June 2015, Splunk acquired the software company Metafor that uses machine learning technology to analyze data generated IT infrastructure and applications.In July 2015 Splunk acquired Caspida, a cybersecurity startup, for US$190 million.In October 2015, Splunk sealed a "cybersecurity alliance" with U.S. government security contractor Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. to offer combined cyber threat detection and intelligence-analysis technology.In 2016, Splunk pledged to donate $100 million in software licenses, training, support, education, and volunteerism for nonprofits and schools over a 10-year period.According to Glassdoor, it was the fourth highest-paying company for employees in the United States in April 2017. In May 2017, Splunk acquired Drastin, a software company that provides search-based analytics for enterprises.In September 2017, Splunk acquired SignalSense which developed cloud-based data collection and breach detection software. Splunk announced it was using machine learning about that time.In October 2017, Splunk acquired technology and intellectual property from smaller rival Rocana.On April 9, 2018, Splunk acquired Phantom Cyber Corporation for approximately US$350 million. In April 2018, it reached US$14.8 billion of market capitalization.On June 11, 2018, Splunk announced its acquisition of VictorOps, a DevOps incident management startup, for US$120 million.In July 2018 Splunk acquired KryptonCloud, an industrial IoT and analytics SaaS company. Splunk acquired the cloud monitoring company, SignalFx, in October 2019 for $1.05 billion. Two weeks later on September 4, 2019, Splunk acquired Omnition—an early-stage startup specializing in distributed tracing—for an undisclosed amount.Splunk also announced the launch of its corporate venture fund, Splunk Ventures—a $100 million Innovation Fund and a $50 million Social Impact Fund to invest in early-stage startups.

Recent history

In 2020, Splunk was named to the Fortune 1000 list.As of September 2020, Splunk's client list includes 92 companies on the Fortune 100 list.Splunk was recognized as a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SIEM. The Gartner report evaluates SIEM providers, and then provides a graph with vendors plotted based on their ability to execute and their completeness of vision . Splunk has been noted for its analytics and infrastructure monitoring, its ability to scale and index original, raw data, its infosec functions, and its multiple deployment options.Splunk reported its fiscal 2021 fourth-quarter revenue of $745.1 million. For all of fiscal 2021, Splunk reported revenue of $2.23 billion.On November 15, 2021, Douglas Merritt stepped down as president and CEO. Graham Smith, Splunk's chairman since 2019, took over as interim CEO.On March 2, 2022, Splunk named Gary Steele, previously at Proofpoint, as its CEO and the successor to interim chief Graham Smith effective April, 2022.