Updated: November 19, 2025
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Palo Alto Networks announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Chronosphere, a fast‑growing cloud‑native observability platform, in a deal valued at $3.35 billion to be paid in cash and replacement equity awards. The companies said the transaction is expected to close in the second half of Palo Alto Networks’ fiscal 2026, pending customary regulatory approvals. [1]
Why this deal matters
Palo Alto Networks plans to pair Chronosphere’s high‑volume, cost‑efficient telemetry pipeline with its Cortex AgentiX platform to move beyond monitoring dashboards toward real‑time, agentic remediation—where AI agents can detect issues, investigate root causes, and autonomously fix them across petabyte‑scale data streams. In the company’s words, the combined stack aims to deliver “real‑time, agentic remediation” and deeper visibility across security and observability data. [2]
Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora said the integration with AgentiX will “take observability from simple dashboards to real‑time, agentic remediation.” [3]
The numbers behind Chronosphere
Chronosphere reported annual recurring revenue (ARR) of over $160 million as of the end of September 2025, with triple‑digit year‑over‑year ARR growth. The company is also recognized—as noted in Palo Alto Networks’ announcement—as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Observability Platforms. [4]
Who is Chronosphere?
Founded by Martin Mao (CEO) and Rob Skillington (CTO), Chronosphere emerged from the team’s work on Uber’s internal metrics stack (M3) and has focused on observability built for Kubernetes‑scale, cloud‑native environments. That background has shaped a product known for high‑cardinality metrics, traces and pipeline controls designed to keep ingestion costs in check. [5]
Just last week, Chronosphere rolled out AI‑Guided Troubleshooting powered by a Temporal Knowledge Graph, underscoring the company’s focus on AI‑assisted operations even before today’s acquisition news. [6]
Strategic context: security + observability is consolidating
The move continues a broader industry shift to unify security operations with deep observability data:
- Cisco closed its $28B acquisition of Splunk in March 2024, bringing security analytics and observability together under one roof. [7]
- New Relic went private in a $6.5B deal led by Francisco Partners and TPG in November 2023, another sign of consolidation among observability leaders. [8]
For Palo Alto Networks specifically, the Chronosphere deal lands amid its broader platformization strategy and alongside its pending ~$25B acquisition of CyberArk, which would add identity security to the portfolio if approved. (Palo Alto’s press release also references this pending transaction in its forward‑looking statements.) [9]
What customers should expect
- Petabyte‑scale visibility, lower data costs: Chronosphere’s ingestion and routing optimizations are designed to make massive telemetry volumes economically viable; Palo Alto aims to combine that with AgentiX for autonomous investigations and closed‑loop response. [10]
- Deeper security‑observability fusion: Palo Alto expects tighter links between performance telemetry and security signals across its platforms, moving toward prevention and remediation rather than alert triage. [11]
- Continuity and timeline: The companies expect the deal to close in H2 FY2026, subject to regulatory approvals. Palo Alto scheduled an investor webcast for 1:30 p.m. PT on Nov. 19, 2025 to discuss the acquisition. [12]
Deal terms at a glance
- Price: $3.35 billion
- Consideration: Cash plus replacement equity awards (subject to adjustments)
- Chronosphere scale: >$160M ARR as of Sept. 2025; triple‑digit ARR growth YoY
- Close: Targeting H2 FY2026, pending approvals
- Strategic fit: Unifies Chronosphere’s observability pipeline with Cortex AgentiX for AI‑driven, agentic remediation at scale
[13]
The bottom line
With Chronosphere, Palo Alto Networks is betting that AI‑first operations require an equally AI‑ready observability fabric—one that can ingest, reason over and act on enormous streams of telemetry. If executed well, the combination could accelerate a new phase where observability data doesn’t just inform human operators—it triggers autonomous, policy‑safe fixes across modern application estates. The competitive bar is already high after Cisco/Splunk and New Relic’s go‑private turn; today’s deal is Palo Alto Networks’ bid to define that future around AgentiX. [14]
Editor’s note (Nov. 19, 2025): Palo Alto Networks’ press release announcing the transaction was issued at 4:12 p.m. ET; Reuters also reported the news later in the day. An investor webcast is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. PT. [15]
References
1. www.prnewswire.com, 2. www.prnewswire.com, 3. www.prnewswire.com, 4. www.prnewswire.com, 5. www.work-bench.com, 6. www.prnewswire.com, 7. investor.cisco.com, 8. newrelic.com, 9. apnews.com, 10. www.prnewswire.com, 11. www.prnewswire.com, 12. www.prnewswire.com, 13. www.prnewswire.com, 14. investor.cisco.com, 15. www.prnewswire.com
