Cisco Spends $2.4B for Multi-factor Authentication SaaS Firm Duo Security with a EV/S Multiple of 18.8x

"Announcing its second-largest information security (infosec) acquisition, Cisco says it will pay $2.4bn for Duo Security, adding identity and access management to the networking's giant ever-expanding security portfolio. Cisco has now purchased 14 infosec vendors since the start of the decade, making it the most active buyer in the sector in recent years, according to 451 Research's M&A KnowledgeBase. The pickup of Duo fits into a broader trend we have highlighted around network security providers needing to add identity to their arsenals to combat the eroding perimeter and the threat to their established VPN businesses posed by new architectures such as zero trust and software-defined networking." 451 QuickTake.