Extreme Networks is reportedly working with an investment banking firm toward a potential sale of the enterprise networking giant, a deal that could include larger rival Cisco and cybersecurity giant Fortinet.

Reuters is reporting that Extreme Networks is exploring a potential sale after garnering “inbound acquisition interest, according to people familiar with the matter.” The report names Cisco, Fortinet, and NetApp as potential acquirers, though none of those firms had responded to the news outlet on the report.

Extreme in a statement to SDxCentral said it didn’t “comment on market rumors or speculation.” SDxCentral has also reached out to Cisco for comment on the news.

Extreme Networks’ stock was trading up around 14% late Friday on the news, pushing the vendor’s market cap to more than $3.1 billion.

Enterprise networking market modulations

The report comes on the heels of Extreme posting robust earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal 2027. Those results included a 10% year-over-year increase in revenues to $341 million, and near-tripling of net income to $16 million for the quarter.

Extreme Networks CEO Ed Meyercord told investors during that latest earnings call that the vendor was benefitting from a handful of “market conditions … working in our favor.” Those included “competitor refresh cycles, Wi-Fi upgrades, and the disruption from the HPE and Juniper integration,” a trio that are “creating a multi-year opportunity.”

Meyercord also noted that it was seeing traction from disenchanted Cisco customers.

“Cisco is focused on a lot of other things besides networking, and they're the most aggressive in raising price, and so, if you're looking for the most complicated bundle of solutions and the most expensive, it's Cisco,” Meyercord said. “And a lot of customers don't want to have everything together. They'll look and say, ‘I'd like the best in breed. Cisco, compared to, let's say, Extreme and Palo Alto, there's much better value and capability going with the Extreme-Palo solution and having best of breed, as opposed to paying a lot more and having a lesser solution from this larger entity.’”

The Reuters report comes as the enterprise networking space continues to re-adjust following Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks. That deal, which closed just over a year ago, combined the market’s No. 2 and No. 3 players into a more powerful rival to market heavyweight Cisco.

Gartner recently located Extreme Networks in the “visionaries” box of its Magic Quadrant for enterprise wired and wireless local area network (LAN) providers. That ranking was alongside rivals Fortinet, Nile, and Meter, and behind market “leaders” Cisco, Huawei, and HPE.