Integration-Led Diligence: Cisco's M&A Approach with Johanna Jaakola & Tesia Hostetle

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Oct 27, 2025

Tesia Hostetler, leader of Cisco's Acquisition Integration Practice, and Johanna Jaakola, Integration Lead at Cisco, delve into Cisco's robust M&A strategies. They discuss the critical role of integration leads in orchestrating due diligence to ensure strategic alignment before finalizing deals. Highlights include insights from Cisco's $28 billion Splunk acquisition, the importance of crafting integration theses alongside deal theses, and how their dual approval process establishes essential checkpoints throughout the negotiation stages. Cultural differences and adaptability are also key themes.

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INSIGHT

Acquisition Can Transform The Acquirer

Splunk transformed Cisco by influencing strategy and operations, not just being absorbed.
Integration can be a two-way street when the target has scale and relevant capabilities.

ANECDOTE

Splunk's Scale Enabled Reverse Integration

Splunk's scale and SaaS maturity made its practices relevant and adoptable at Cisco.
Cisco adopted Splunk's customer success and operational practices to accelerate its SaaS transformation.

ADVICE

Make Decisive Product Leadership Calls

Decide early which organization will lead a combined product area and empower them to make hard cuts.
Consolidate overlapping products quickly and create a unified roadmap for complementary offers.

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Johanna Jaakola – Integration Lead, Corporate Development Integration Team, Cisco

Tesia Hostetler – Leader, Acquisition Integration Practice, Cisco Johanna Jaakola, Integration Lead on Cisco's Corporate Development Integration Team, and Tesia Hostetler, Leader of Cisco's Acquisition Integration Practice, share how one of the world's most prolific acquirers structures deals for success. This episode breaks down Cisco's integration-led diligence model, where integration leads orchestrate due diligence from the deal thesis stage, ensuring strategic alignment and execution readiness before ink hits paper. Learn how Cisco's structured approach to integration strategy, two-stage approvals, and tight feedback loops between strategy and execution have transformed their M&A outcomes—with insights from their $28 billion Splunk acquisition.

Things You'll Learn

Why integration leads should orchestrate diligence
How creating an integration thesis alongside your deal thesis ensures every diligence question tests strategic assumptions and drives execution clarity
How Cisco's dual approval process (one to negotiate LOI, another for final purchase agreement) creates natural checkpoints to validate strategy before committing capital

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Episode Chapters

[00:02:00] Cisco's Integration Leadership Team

[00:06:00] Role Clarity – Integration Lead vs. Integration Practice Leader

[00:10:00] How Cisco evolved from integration showing up late to embedding integration thinking at the earliest deal thesis conversations.

[00:15:00] Testing Assumptions Through Diligence

[00:22:00] How Cisco reorganized corporate development to eliminate silos between deal strategy and integration execution, creating tighter feedback loops.

[00:29:00] Two-Stage Approvals – Protecting Value with Structured Gates [00:33:00] Integration Leads Diligence – The Air Traffic Controller Model

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