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Nikesh Arora of the United States on the first hole during the third round of The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at The Old Course on October 02, 2021 in St Andrews, Scotland.

David Cannon | David Cannon Collection | Getty Images

When Nikesh Arora was named CEO of Palo Alto Networks in June 2018, the cybersecurity company was valued at about $19 billion and was taking on large networking vendors like Cisco and Juniper, which were building security into their products.

Seven years later, Palo Alto’s market cap has expanded by sixfold, driven in part by an acquisition spree that’s seen Arora spearhead more than 20 deals in an effort to create a one-stop shop for all things cybersecurity.

Arora’s ambitions took a dramatic turn last week, when Palo Alto announced by far its biggest bet to date: the $25 billion purchase of Israeli identity security platform CyberArk.

Wall Street’s reaction so far has been downbeat, with multiple analysts downgrading the stock, and the shares dropping 16% since news of the deal first leaked out last Tuesday.

Not only does CyberArk represent Palo Alto’s heftiest deal in the 20 years since its founding, but it’s the second-biggest U.S. tech acquisition announced in 2025, after Alphabet’s $32 billion purchase of Wiz, another cloud security company from Israel.

Alphabet had become a more notable player in Palo Alto’s universe even before the calendar turned. In the company’s 2024 annual report published in October, Palo Alto named Alphabet as a competitor for the first time, listing it alongside Cisco and Microsoft as companies “that have acquired, or may acquire, security vendors and have the technical and financial resources to bring competitive solutions to the market.” In 2023, Cisco paid $28 billion for Splunk, which focuses on data protection.

The era of cybersecurity megadeals coincides with a surge in the number of sophisticated cybercrimes tied to rapid advancements in artificial intelligence.

With CyberArk, Palo Alto is making a big splash in the identity management market, taking on the likes of Okta as well as Microsoft and IBM’s HashiCorp. It also puts the company into further competition with CrowdStrike, the other pure-play security company that’s topped $100 billion in market cap.

Expect to see more tech M&A ahead, says Axios' Dan Primack

In an interview with CNBC soon after last week’s announcement, Arora said CyberArk fits squarely into his company’s focus on AI and, in this case, the complexities that come with granting permissions and access. Arora said that with M&A he looks for emerging trends, particularly when it involves technology that’s at a crossroads.

“Our entire acquisition strategy, our organic product growth strategy, our selling strategy, has always been based on that approach,” said Arora, 57, who’s seen his personal wealth top $1 billion with the big run-up in the stock.

In CyberArk’s earnings report last week, the company said revenue jumped 46% in the latest quarter to $328 million, equal to about 14% of Palo Alto revenue, based on the most recent report. Arora said in the conference call announcing the deal that he intends to work with CyberArk CEO Matt Cohen and Chairman Udi Mokady to “accelerate the pace of innovation.”

“We look for great products, a team that can execute in the product, and we let them run it,” Arora told CNBC. “This is going to be a different challenge, but we’ve done well 24 times, so I’m pretty confident that our team can handle this.”

Most of Arora’s acquisitions over the years have been of smaller startups. That includes a $400 million deal to buy Dig Security and the $625 million purchase of Talon Cyber Security in 2023. Last month, the company closed its takeover of Seattle-based startup Protect AI for an undisclosed amount.

Appetite for risk

Before joining Palo Alto, Arora spent a decade at Google, including his last three years there as chief business officer. Some analysts called him the “acting CEO,” due to his lengthy roster of responsibilities, such as strategic partnerships and navigating the needs of advertisers.

In 2014, Arora left Google to join SoftBank as head of its internet and media operations business and vice chairman of the overall company. At SoftBank, Arora had been tapped as the likely successor to visionary founder and CEO Masayoshi Son. But less than two years after taking the job, Arora resigned. As he explained it, Son told him he was going to keep running the show for another five to 10 years.

Roughly 10 months before leaving SoftBank, Arora said he was buying more than $480 million worth of stock in the Japanese conglomerate, which he said involved taking an “enormous risk” reflecting his confidence “about the future” of the company.

While that’s all firmly in the past, Arora said that over the years, he’s “scavenged” different leadership qualities from each of his mentors, including an appetite for risk from Son.

“It’s about finding role models for certain behaviors and wanting to understand what makes them really successful,” he said. “That’s my model.”

Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group Corp., speaks during the company’s annual general meeting in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, June 27, 2025.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Investors weren’t completely sold on Arora when he joined Palo Alto in 2018, said Joseph Gallo, an analyst at Jefferies. He was a skilled and experienced businessman but some worried that he hadn’t created a notable product or founded a company like many of his industry peers, said Gallo, who recommends buying Palo Alto shares.

Arora made up for it with an ability to spot trends ahead of the curve, Gallo said. That included investing aggressively in a transition from on-premises technology to the cloud and then recognizing early the power of AI.

In his first few years at the company, Arora made numerous acquisitions for a total of about $3 billion, helping Palo Alto penetrate the cloud security space as more businesses were moving their workloads to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google’s cloud.

“Every company wishes they were in Palo Alto shoes, where they could actually offer all these different products,” said Andrew Nowinski, an analyst at Wells Fargo who has a buy recommendation on the stock. “It’s very difficult. You’re not going to see many vendors like Palo Alto.”

With its expansion into identity management, Palo Alto is going big in a space that’s viewed by experts as a key spending area for IT in the coming years.

“You can’t slow down your spending because the hackers aren’t slowing down,” Nowinski said. “That’s your growth driver.”

Ofer Schreiber, senior partner and head of YL Ventures’ Israel office, said Palo Alto has helped take an extremely fragmented market, consisting of lots of point solutions, and created a centralized vendor for clients.

According to a joint report from IBM and Palo Alto published in January, the average organization uses 83 different security products from 29 separate companies.

“From the customer’s perspective, it’s much more convenient dealing with with one vendor with multiple products tightly integrated,” Schreiber said. “You can’t really be just a one-product company.”

Still, Arora is in untested waters with CyberArk.

Palo Alto’s shares dropped on all five days following the announcement of the deal. It’s the first time at Palo Alto that Arora has led a multibillion-dollar purchase, and he now faces the execution challenges of integrating thousands of new employees.

Analysts at KeyBanc lowered their rating to the equivalent of hold from buy, due partly to concerns about a lack of “meaningful synergies” in the product offerings and a view that customers would prefer an “independent vendor solely focused on identity.”

But TD Cowen’s Shaul Eyal still recommends buying the shares. He said that what’s made Arora successful is his “relentless focus on execution” and his strategy of betting on sizeable markets where Palo Alto can quickly scale and become the leader or runner-up.

That, and his ability to bundle.

“It’s all about upsell,” Eyal said. “Every other second, third, fourth module you’re selling to an existing customer flows straight to the bottom line.”

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Affirm’s stock soars 15% on earnings, revenue beat

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Affirm's stock soars 15% on earnings, revenue beat

Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal and chief executive officer of financial technology company Affirm, arrives at the Sun Valley Resort for the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Affirm shares rose 15% in extended trading on Thursday after the provider of buy now, pay later loans reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter.

Here’s how the company did versus LSEG consensus estimates:

  • EPS: 20 cents vs. 11 cents estimated
  • Revenue: $876 million vs. $837 million estimated

Revenue climbed 33% in the period from $659 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Gross merchandise volume rose 43% to $10.4 billion from $7.2 billion a year ago.

Affirm reported net income of $69.2 million, or 20 cents a share, after recording a loss a year earlier of $45.1 million, or 14 cents a share.

 “This consistent execution led Affirm to achieve operating income profitability in FQ4’25 – right on the schedule we committed to a year ago,” the company said in its shareholder letter.

For the first quarter, Affirm said revenue will be between $855 million and $885 million, while gross merchandise volume will be $10.1 billion to 10.4 billion.

Shares of Affirm were up 31% this year before the after-hours pop, topping the Nasdaq’s 12% gain.

Affirm, which went public in 2021, faces growing competition in e-commerce. It has partnerships with Amazon and Shopify, but Walmart recently shifted to competitor Klarna, which is expected to go public in the near future. Last year, Affirm announced a deal with Apple.

WATCH: Affirm posts earnings and revenue beat

Affirm posts earnings and revenue beat for Q4

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Tesla FSD turns off more U.S. consumers than its attracts, survey finds

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Tesla FSD turns off more U.S. consumers than its attracts, survey finds

Elon Musk reacts during a press event with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured), at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2025.

Nathan Howard | Reuters

Elon Musk’s fervent promotion of Tesla‘s self-driving technology isn’t doing much to win over prospective buyers.

According to a new survey, more U.S. consumers say that Tesla’s FSD, or Full Self-Driving (Supervised) systems, would push them away from the brand rather than drawing them to it.

The Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report for August, published by political consulting firm Slingshot Strategies, polled 8,000 Americans. Only 14% of those surveyed said FSD would make them more likely to buy a Tesla, while 35% said the technology would make them less likely to purchase one.

The remaining 51% said the availability of FSD would make no difference to them in terms of their car buying decisions. Nearly half of consumers surveyed by Slingshot said they think FSD technology should be illegal.

For Tesla, the troubling results land in the middle of a sales slump resulting from an aging lineup of electric vehicles and increased competition from rivals. There’s also reputational damage in response to Musk, his incendiary political rhetoric, work with the Trump administration and support of Germany’s far-right AfD party.

Sales of Tesla cars in Europe plunged 40% in July from a year earlier, the seventh consecutive month of declines.

In the robotaxi market, Tesla is lagging Alphabet-owned Waymo, and Baidu’s Apollo Go. It’s now in the early stages of testing a ride-hailing service in Austin, Texas, and in the San Francisco Bay Area, with hopes to reach more cities this year. Cars in Austin have human supervisors on board, while those in San Francisco have drivers at the wheel.

Musk, the world’s richest person, has said the future of Tesla hangs on its ability to deliver autonomous vehicles and related services. He recently said a new variant of the Model Y, which launched in China, won’t “start production in the U.S. until the end of next year,” and “might not ever, given the advent of self-driving in America.”

Tesla sales fall 40% in Europe as Chinese EV rival BYD's triple

For now, Tesla still relies on EV sales for the vast majority of its revenue, though Musk has touted FSD as one of the company’s big advantages over competitors.

Last month, executives suggested that Tesla has a market education problem when it comes to driving adoption of FSD.

“The vast majority of people don’t know it exists,” Musk said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call. “And it’s still like half of Tesla owners who could use it, haven’t tried it even once.”

Musk said he would start telling customers about FSD when they bring their cars in for service, and would begin reaching out to drivers, sending them videos of how it works.

Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja said on the July earnings call that people who subscribe to the premium FSD option get something like a “personal chauffeur” for about $3.33 a day.

The version of FSD Supervised that Tesla sells today is available to owners for $99 per month or an up-front purchase. The system gives users a limited set of self-driving capabilities on residential and city streets.

On Thursday, Tesla sent out a promotion offering 0% APR financing for customers ordering a new Model 3 by Sept. 1, as long as they add FSD Supervised to their order, or transfer it from their previously owned Tesla.

‘Holding AV manufacturers responsible’

Musk has said in posts on X that FSD can “can operate in all conditions,” will “save lives” and will be a “life-changing product” for many people. He’s also shared user-generated videos showing Tesla owners using FSD without their hands on the wheel.

However, in owners manuals, Tesla lists many conditions in which FSD Supervised may not be reliable, and warns users to keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times, and be ready to take over steering or braking.

Among the subset of survey respondents actively looking to buy a fully electric vehicle, only 20% said they were more likely to buy a Tesla because of FSD, while 33% said they were less likely. Evan Roth Smith, Slingshot’s head of research, said a lack of clarity and honesty in the company’s marketing could be a factor.

Most consumers polled by the firm want clear and strong regulations in the U.S. governing autonomous vehicles, whether they’re fully or partially automated.

“There is strong support for holding AV manufacturers responsible for accidents and requiring stricter regulatory and advertising guardrails around features such as FSD,” the Slingshot report said.

Smith said the data shows that beyond its FSD woes, Tesla has “the worst reputation of any EV maker in the U.S.”

“The drop in the company’s brand reputation this year is remarkable,” he said, adding that recent product liability lawsuits and verdicts may be playing a role.

In early August, a jury found Tesla partially liable for a fatal crash where the driver was relying on its autopilot systems. Tesla, which plans to appeal the decision, must pay around $243 million in damages to victims and a survivor.

In the past two months, the number of consumers who view Tesla cars as unsafe has increased to 36% from 34%, the Slingshot report found, while those viewing Tesla as very safe fell to 13% from 17%.

Honda, Toyota and Chevrolet were seen as safest among the greatest number of respondents.

Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment. Slingshot said it sent the survey results to the company but also didn’t hear back from the automaker.

Tesla may find that owners in other markets embrace its brand, and FSD, with greater enthusiasm. The company just started offering FSD Supervised in Australia this week.

Read Slingshot’s full Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report for August 2025 here.

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Dell shares fall on soft third-quarter earnings outlook

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Dell shares fall on soft third-quarter earnings outlook

A Dell Technologies sign is seen in Round Rock, Texas, on June 2, 2023.

Brandon Bell | Getty Images

Despite beating on its top and bottom lines, shares of Dell Technologies fell more than 5% Thursday in extended trading after giving third-quarter earnings per share guidance that below Wall Street’s expectations.

Here’s how the systems integrator did versus LSEG consensus estimates:

  • EPS: $2.32, adjusted vs. $2.30 estimated
  • Revenue: $29.78 billion vs. $29.17 billion estimated

Dell raised its full year outlook for revenue to be $107 billion at its midpoint and diluted earnings per share to $9.55 at the midpoint, topping Wall Street estimates of $104.6 billion and $9.38 per share.

However, Dell’s guidance for third-quarter earnings per share of $2.45 came in short versus LSEG’s mark of $2.55, despite Dell’s guide for $27 billion in third-quarter revenue topping estimates of $26.1 billion.

Dell said that part of the reason its profit forecast is concentrated in the fourth quarter is due to seasonality, particularly in its storage business.

For the second quarter, overall revenue rose 19% on an annual basis. That was driven by the company’s Servers and Networking revenue, including AI servers, which came in at $12.9 billion, which was up 69% on an annual basis.

Dell is one of Nvidia’s key customers. Dell buys chips from the AI leader and builds computers around them, which it sells to end-users such as CoreWeave, a cloud service. Dell said it shipped $10 billion in AI servers in its past two quarters.

Dell said that it now plans to ship $20 billion of artificial intelligence servers in its fiscal 2026, double what it sold last year.

However, the company’s storage revenue declined 3% to $3.86 billion and missed a StreetAccount estimate of $4.1 billion in sales.

Revenue in the company’s client solutions group, which includes PC sales to enterprises, rose 1% on an annual basis to $12.5 billion. While it used to be Dell’s largest business group, in recent quarters it has grown much slowly than the company’s data center business.

Dell said it spent $1.3 billion on share repurchases and dividends during the quarter.

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