Cisco Eyes $2 Billion Purchase of Cybersecurity Firm Axonius

Cisco is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Israeli cybersecurity firm Axonius for $2 billion.

That’s according to a report Sunday (Jan. 4) from Calcalist, which noted that Axonius was previously valued at $2.6 billion. However, the company denied that the deal is happening in a statement to the tech publication:

“Axonius is not in talks to be acquired by Cisco. Our strategy is to build a durable, independent company. We are focused on execution, serving our customers, and continuing our growth. That is where our attention is.”

PYMNTS has contacted Cisco for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

The Calcalist report added that Axonius operates in a similar space as cybersecurity firm Armis, which was sold last month to ServiceNow for $7.75 billion.

According to the report, Axonius has raised about $700 million to date, though its first investor, YL Ventures, has since exited its holdings. Last November, the company cut 100 jobs from its 900-person workforce in Israel and the U.S. Axonius also acquired Cynerio, an Israeli cybersecurity firm focused  on medical devices for hospitals, for $180 million in July 2024.

Founded in 2017 by three veterans of the Israeli Defense Force’s cyber units, Axonius’ platform is designed to manage and secure devices connected to corporate networks.

The news follows a year in which cyberthreats snowballed from episodic crises to becoming a “persistent condition of doing business,” as PYMNTS wrote recently.

“A persistent and costly condition,” that report added. “So much so that one of the world’s largest cyber insurance firms, Beazley, announced last month it was reducing its U.S. cyber business in order to maintain underwriting discipline and rate adequacy in the face of unsustainable rates in the cyber market following several high-profile breaches.”

Last year’s most consequential incidents revealed common fault lines: AI-powered cybercriminals leveraging cloud complexity, fragile supply chains weakened by third-party exposure, and organizations with no real-time view of how risk was compounding throughout their digital ecosystems.

Research from PYMNTS Intelligence in the August edition of the 2025 Certainty Project report, “Vendors and Vulnerabilities: The Cyberattack Squeeze on Mid-Market Firms,” showed that attackers will often first compromise a vendor before using a trusted relationship to infiltrate their target company. The report also found 38% of invoice fraud cases and 43% of phishing attacks stemming from compromised vendors.