Palo Alto Networks Stock Surges After Report CEO Held Acquisition Talks With Okta and Datadog

Shares of Palo Alto Networks jumped Thursday after The Information reported that CEO Nikesh Arora held acquisition talks with both Okta and Datadog in the past year. Talks with Okta progressed to discussions of product complementarity but stalled over price disagreements, with Okta now carrying a market cap near $23 billion after climbing roughly 30% since those conversations. A separate approach to Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel in spring 2025 drew no receptiveness, and Datadog's valuation has since roughly doubled to more than $80 billion.

With both paths closed, Arora executed acquisitions on two other fronts, buying CyberArk for $2.3 billion in cash plus stock and paying $3.35 billion for Chronosphere in January 2026. Options activity in PANW was notably elevated Thursday, with 41,569 contracts traded. In a separate development, Arora also offered pointed commentary on neocloud economics, warning that equity-funded capital expenditure models work only in euphoric markets and predicting that neocloud valuations will normalize sharply within two years, while singling out Nebius as a company in a different category from typical neocloud operators.