Once Silicon Valley’s Star, Cisco Taps Splunk for Fresh Mojo

Cisco Systems Inc.’s Chuck Robbins, who has spent years working to restore the networking company to its former glory, is now looking to the $28 billion acquisition of Splunk Inc. to help speed up the effort.

Robbins, Cisco’s chief executive officer since 2015, is betting that Splunk’s data-crunching credentials can help fuel growth and attract new kinds of customers in the artificial intelligence era. But the acquisition — Cisco’s biggest ever — is unlikely to revitalize the Silicon Valley stalwart by itself, raising the question of whether more deals are on the horizon.