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Tag: Wiz

  • In its Largest Acquisition, Alphabet will Pay $32 Billion to Acquire Wiz

    Alphabet, the parent company of Google, said on March 18 that it will make its largest-ever acquisition of the rapidly expanding startup Wiz for approximately $32 billion. The company is focussing on cybersecurity to strengthen its position against Amazon.com and Microsoft in the cloud computing competition. Wiz will join Google’s cloud division as a result of the historic agreement, bolstering the company’s efforts to provide cybersecurity solutions that help businesses eliminate important risks. Given its high price and disproportionately large breakup fee, Alphabet is confident that the acquisition will be approved by the White House, despite the Trump administration’s involvement in significant transactions and its pledge to closely monitor Big Tech. Alphabet’s stock fell about 3%. Prior to T18 March, the stock had dropped 13% this year due to concerns about its high AI expenditures in comparison to the emergence of China’s less expensive DeepSeek and a retreat by the IT behemoths that had dominated the market for the previous two years. Alphabet had to accept a higher price to finalise the deal than the $23 billion offer for Wiz last year, which the Israeli business had turned down.

    Trump Made it Possible

    The media source claims that despite Wiz’s denial last year, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian persisted in his approach, and the two parties have been in touch. According to the story, which cited some inside sources, the negotiations accelerated in the two months following Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Trump has stated that he will maintain the intense monitoring of Big Tech that he started during his first term, but Wall Street anticipates a change in antitrust laws under the president, whose choice of Andrew Ferguson to head the Federal Trade Commission may reduce regulations of large M&A. Among its clients are Morgan Stanley (MS.N), BMW (BMWG.DE), LVMH (LVMH.PA), and Google Cloud. Wiz collaborates with cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Azure, and Google Cloud. Other significant cloud services will still offer Wiz’s products. In 2026, Alphabet anticipates the purchase to close, pending regulatory approval.

     Given Google’s poor track record with its capital allocation plan, particularly with regard to M&A, investors will probably be closely monitoring the deal, according to Dave Wagner, portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors. Google’s cloud division has outperformed the company’s search business in recent years, generating over $40 billion in sales in 2024. Gil Luria, an analyst at D.A. Davidson, stated that the increased price is predicated on Wiz seeing exponential growth for another year. Wiz has consented to one of the largest termination fees in M&A history, at over $3.2 billion.

    Companies are Getting Attracted Towrds Cybersecurity Industry

    Interest in the cybersecurity business has surged after last year’s global CrowdStrike, outage roiled operations across industries, driving corporations to spend more on defending their web domains. The most recent agreement is yet another indication that Israel’s cybersecurity sector is far more powerful than its peers. Silicon Valley giants have purchased a number of Israeli-based or Israeli-founded security firms, such as Own, which Salesforce purchased in 2024, and Siemplify, which Alphabet purchased in 2022. The founders of Wiz sold Adallom, a cloud security company, to Microsoft back in 2015.

  • Google Parent, Alphabet in Talks to Make Its Biggest Acquisition Ever with Cybersecurity Startup Wiz for $23 Billion

    The parent company of Google, Alphabet, is reportedly in negotiations to acquire the cyber security startup Wiz for approximately $23 billion. This would be the biggest acquisition that Alphabet has ever made. The talks may not go through because many aspects have not been worked out yet, according to a report from a well-known media outlet. A little over ten years ago, Alphabet paid $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola Mobility.

    What is Wiz?

    Wiz, with headquarters in New York and founded in 2020, has raised over $2 billion in funding. Assaf Rappaport, an Israeli entrepreneur and former Microsoft executive, is the CEO of this $12 billion firm. Thrive and Sequoia Capital are among its backers. Tel Aviv is home to Wiz’s R&D facilities.

    With more and more enterprises storing data and software in the cloud, Wiz assists them in securing their cloud programs. Reports indicate that the company’s yearly recurring revenue has surpassed $350 million.

    An agreement to purchase Wiz would rank among the biggest purchases of a company funded by venture capital in history.

    This young company claims, on its website, to be “mission-driven to assist organizations in developing safe cloud environments that power their enterprises.” To rephrase, it is a cybersecurity company that aids businesses in protecting themselves from potential dangers when they utilize cloud computing services.

    Colgate-Palmolive, AON, IHG Hotels & Resorts, BMW, and many more prominent brands are Wiz customers. In 2023, WIZ introduced its Digital Forensics capabilities, which enable organizations to promptly address threats in contemporary cloud environments by autonomously obtaining forensic-level detail on incidents through a cloud-native approach.

    By downloading a forensic investigation package that contains the information needed for the incident’s first evaluation, businesses can quickly access the critical security logs and artifacts of the potentially infected system. Without executing any collection tools or scripts created in-house on the compromised workload, the forensics package is collected in an agentless manner.

    Why is Google Showing a Keen Interest in Wiz?

    The CEO of Google Cloud, Thomas Kurian, reportedly spearheaded the effort to purchase Wiz, according to a well-known news outlet. According to the article, Kurien and Google are working on a plan to elevate Google Cloud’s cybersecurity offerings.

    It is believed that Google would make its largest acquisition to date if the $23 billion deal for Wiz goes through. Before this, in 2011, Google paid an astronomical $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola. The business, however, sold it to Lenovo for $3 billion two years down the road. One such cybersecurity company that Google purchased in 2022 for $5.4 billion was Mandiant.

    Not long ago, Alphabet considered acquiring HubSpot, a provider of marketing tools for the web but ultimately opted against it. It looks to be shifting its attention now to strengthening its cybersecurity skills, perhaps through the acquisition of Wiz.

    As of yet, neither Alphabet nor Wiz have made any statements about the potential merger. Because of the potential influence on cybersecurity and Alphabet’s bottom line, the IT industry is keeping a careful eye on the outcome of this massive transaction.

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    StartupTalkyAnsh Mehrey