Shares of security company FireEye spiked today due to rumors that Cisco was in talks to buy it for $8 billion.
But that acquisition isn't going to happen, Cisco John Chambers hinted to Wall Street analysts during the company's annual conference call. This is Chambers' last quarterly call as CEO, after 20 years leading the company, and the quarter was good.
As such, a cheerful Chambers repeatedly said, "I'm breaking one of my rules about talking about ..." and then talked.
In one case, he basically squashed the FireEye acquisition rumor. After saying the company "never" comments on rumors and speculation, he then said, "I wouldn't bet on the one you heard today."
It looks like news of that acquisition talk came from a financial chat site Seeking Alpha who reported "unconfirmed market chatter that Cisco has made a $9B bid for FireEye." FireEye's market cap was at $6.7 billion.
FireEye's stock price is dropping after hours with this rumor squashed, down about 4%.
