Analysts Comment On Oracle-Splunk Rumor

The Benzinga News Desk received a rumor today about a potential buyout of Splunk Inc. SPLK by Oracle Corporation ORCL. Splunk is sitting at a market cap of $8.81 billion and was trading up around 1.5 percent following word the acquisition. We talked to two analysts, who offered their thoughts on the rumor. Steven Koenig, Wedbush Koenig believes that the deal would make sense for Oracle, as the California-based company would benefit from consolidation within the tech and data space. He says that Splunk's highly differentiated big data processing software is in high demand and thus wouldn't be surprised if multiple large tech companies were bidding to acquire the firm. However, he's skeptical of whether Splunk executives would see now as the correct time to sell, since they have a "very robust growth outlook ahead of them." J Derrick Wood, Susquehanna Financial Group Wood thinks that a Splunk buyout would be an unlikely move for Oracle. According to him, the company is very disciplined with regard to the amount of money it is willing to spend on acquisitions. "With Splunk trading at a pretty high premium right now," he says, the company is outside of Oracle's valuation parameters. "It's just not Oracle's style."