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Arista Acquires Awake Security to Mitigate Threat Risks

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Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET - Free Report) recently inked a definitive agreement to acquire Awake Security for an undisclosed amount to augment customers’ proactive visibility and threat detection capabilities across the cloud network traffic. The buyout is likely to add significant value to Arista and complement many of its Endpoint Detection Response (EDR) offerings.

Founded in 2014, Awake Security is a network detection and response platform provider that combines AI with human expertise to identify and respond to insider and external threats. Its disruptive security and AI-driven business model offers proactive threat detection with actionable insights that are radically different from traditional security solutions. This, in turn, helps to better address the evolving nature of data theft risks and develop a cognitive platform that safeguards day-to-day security operations from malicious intents.

The transaction brings together two leading technology firms with complete situational awareness of customers’ digital assets along with the ability to fully assess and respond to critical threats. In addition to distinct synergies in technology and market opportunity, the deal is based on commonalities in values, culture and philosophies, and is likely to deliver secure cloud networking experience for clients.

The acquisition is not likely to have any material impact on Arista’s fiscal 2020 operating results. The transaction is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, subject to mandatory closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Arista continues to benefit from the expanding cloud networking market, owing to strong demand for scalable infrastructure. In addition to high capacity and easy availability, its cloud networking solutions promise predictable performance along with programmability that enables integration with third-party applications for network management, automation and orchestration. The company’s robust product portfolio facilitates the implementation of high-performance, highly scalable and appropriate solutions for every environment, thereby boosting top-line growth with accretive customer flow.

Arista’s strategy of leveraging merchant silicon from multiple suppliers has expanded product portfolio and increased its ability to offer products at cheaper prices. This has also helped it to focus on developing software like EOS (Extensible Operating System) and CloudVision. While EOS is core to the company’s cloud networking solutions for next-generation data centers and cloud networks, CloudVision is a network-wide approach for workload orchestration, workflow automation and real-time telemetry as a turnkey solution for cloud networking. Arista is well poised to benefit from strong demand for its data center switches. Moreover, continued spending on IT infrastructure products (server, enterprise storage and Ethernet switches) for deployment in cloud environments is likely to benefit the company. Notably, its switches and routers support the high-end cloud networking market that require fast throughput at low cost. The robust product portfolio is aiding the company to win customers on a regular basis.

Despite diligent operational strategies, shares of Arista have lost 14.2% compared with the industry’s decline of 4.2% in the past year. It has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 9.1%.



Arista presently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the industry are Acacia Communications, Inc. , Airgain, Inc. (AIRG - Free Report) and Corning Incorporated (GLW - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Acacia delivered a positive earnings surprise of 17%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.

Airgain delivered a positive earnings surprise of 83.3%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.

Corning has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 2.4%. It delivered a positive earnings surprise of 39.9%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.

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