Cisco in talks to acquire security startup Signal Sciences

Cisco Systems is mulling another security purchase to build out its growing portfolio, according to a new report.

The tech giant is in talks to purchase Signal Sciences, a cybersecurity startup in which Cisco already has a relationship, according to a report published by The Information on Friday that cited several people familiar with the conversations.

Five-year-old Signal Sciences is a web application security company that develops software to protect applications running in private data centres and in the cloud. The startup has raised a total of US$61.7 million in funding over four rounds, according to Crunchbase. In February, the company raised US$35 million in funding led by growth equity firm Lead Edge Capital with participation from previous investors including CRV, Index Ventures, Harrison Metal, and OATV.

A deal with Signal Sciences could strengthen Cisco's increasing focus on cybersecurity.

Security has been one of Cisco's fastest-growing markets in terms of revenue for the past several quarters. During the company's Q3 2019, security revenue shot up 21 percent.

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said during the company's third-quarter earnings call that security would be "a good, solid business" for [Cisco] for a really long time."

A Cisco spokesperson declined to comment on the reported acquisition, saying the company “won’t comment on rumours or speculation.”

Cisco and Signal Sciences have partnered in the past. The two companies announced in a blog post in June that the startup would integrate its technology into Cisco Threat Response, a platform that automates integrations across Cisco security products. Signal Sciences is a member of Cisco's Security Technical Alliance.

Cisco has been growing its security practice organically and inorganically. The company last August scooped up Duo Security, a firm that offers a cloud-based SaaS solution for unified access security and multi-factor authentication, for US$2.35 billion. The company in 2017 bought AppDynamics for US$3.2 billion, which develops software for monitoring performance of applications.

Signal Sciences sells its software in a subscription model, which would work well with Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins' vision to shift the company to a services-focused organisation via more subscription-based offerings.

Robbins told CRN USA in March that the company is "on track" to meet its pledge to have software and services account for 30 percent of its revenue over the next three years.

This article originally appeared at crn.com