Cisco in Talks to Buy AI Security Startup Astrix for at Least $250 Million

Cisco Systems is in talks to acquire Astrix Security, a five-year-old Israeli cybersecurity startup that sells software to monitor and secure AI agents, for between $250M and $350M, according to people with knowledge of the deal. That would represent at least a 25% premium to the startup’s last valuation of around $200M, one of the people said. The deal talks come as the popularity of AI agents - AI software that can take actions on behalf of users on their devices - has exploded in recent months. Concerns over the risk these agents pose to companies have led large software vendors to.