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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteSplunk announced an agreement to acquire Omnition on September 4, 2019, and completed the acquisition on September 13, 2019. The deal brought distributed-tracing technology for microservices into Splunk’s observability portfolio; Splunk’s later accounting disclosure put the total fair value of consideration at $52.5 million, not a cash-only purchase price.
What happened—and when
| Date | Event | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|
| September 4, 2019 | Splunk announced a definitive agreement to acquire Omnition. | The announcement described Omnition as a stealth-mode SaaS company focused on distributed tracing for microservices. It was an agreement announcement, not the legal closing. Splunk’s announcement. |
| September 13, 2019 | The acquisition closed. | Splunk’s fiscal 2021 Form 10-K says it acquired 100% of the voting equity interest in Cloud Native Labs, Inc., which it identifies as Omnition. Splunk’s acquisitions listing also places Omnition in September 2019. Splunk’s Form 10-K; Splunk’s acquisitions listing. |
| March 31, 2020 | Splunk announced SignalFx Microservices APM. | The release described the product as combining capabilities from SignalFx and Omnition. It marks a public integration announcement, not proof that Omnition remains separately available today. Splunk’s product announcement. |
What Splunk paid
Splunk’s fiscal 2021 Form 10-K reported $52.5 million in total fair value of consideration transferred for the acquisition. The filing breaks that accounting figure into three components:
- $31.6 million in cash.
- $20.2 million fair value for 176,989 shares of Splunk common stock.
- $0.7 million fair value of replacement equity awards attributable to pre-acquisition service.
These amounts are Splunk’s accounting disclosure, not a reported cash-only price. The filing also states that Splunk acquired all of the voting equity interest in Cloud Native Labs, Inc. on September 13, 2019. Read the filing.
Why Splunk wanted Omnition
Splunk framed the acquisition around a gap in observability for cloud-native applications built from microservices. Such systems can produce many services and interactions to investigate; distributed tracing helps follow requests across those components. Splunk’s stated aim was to bring tracing together with logs and metrics in its monitoring and analytics platform.
#1 Best Overall
In the announcement, Splunk described Omnition as a distributed-tracing and application-monitoring platform. It also said Omnition worked on OpenCensus and participated in OpenTelemetry, and characterized the company as a founding member and one of the top three contributors to OpenTelemetry at that time. Those descriptions and rankings are Splunk’s 2019 claims, not an independent or current assessment.
Splunk’s then-chief technology officer Tim Tully wrote: “The combined power of Splunk and Omnition will provide users with a leading observability technology, bringing tracing together with logs within one of the most advanced IT monitoring and analytics platform.” This was Splunk’s stated expectation in an acquisition announcement, rather than an independent evaluation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the later integration announcement showed
On March 31, 2020, Splunk announced SignalFx Microservices APM, describing it as a combination of SignalFx and Omnition capabilities. The release highlighted full-fidelity tracing, open-standards-based instrumentation, and AI-driven directed troubleshooting. These are features and benefits as presented by Splunk; the announcement does not independently validate performance or establish current product packaging or availability.
The useful historical takeaway is that Omnition’s tracing technology was publicly incorporated into a broader Splunk product announcement. The available announcements do not establish whether an original Omnition service can still be obtained separately.
Quick Recap
What the deal does—and does not—tell you
- It was a completed acquisition: the agreement was announced September 4, 2019, and the filing records closing on September 13.
- The target was acquired in full: Splunk reported purchasing 100% of Cloud Native Labs, Inc.’s voting equity interest.
- The consideration was mixed: the $52.5 million total included cash, stock, and replacement equity awards.
- The strategic fit was distributed tracing: Splunk said it wanted to combine tracing with logs and metrics for microservices observability.
- The 2020 product release documents integration, not present-day status: the announcement is not evidence that Omnition remains a separate product or that the named capabilities are currently packaged in the same way.
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