Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora held acquisition discussions with Okta and Datadog before agreeing to a $25 billion CyberArk deal, and is now considering Cribl and ClickHouse as potential targets, The Information reported. Talks with Okta CEO Todd McKinnon ran from late 2024 into early 2025 and reached discussions about product complementarity before stalling over price. Arora approached Datadog CEO Olivier Pomel in spring 2025 about a hypothetical acquisition, but Pomel was not receptive and no formal offer followed. Palo Alto Networks subsequently agreed to acquire CyberArk in July 2025 and paid $3.35 billion for Chronosphere in January 2026. The two acquisitions contributed $338 million of the company’s $3 billion in revenue in the April quarter. Arora’s dealmaking reflects the view that AI agents are expanding the threat landscape and making continuous system monitoring a strategic priority for companies.