Google is making the biggest acquisition in its history. The company’s parent company Alphabet is acquiring Wiz, the cloud security startup, for $32 billion, our sources say.
The deal will still need regulatory and other approvals before closing. From what we can see Google and Wiz have yet to confirm anything official.
The deal has been on-again off-again for nearly part of a year and appeared to revive again this week, with Thomas Kurian — the CEO of Google Cloud — in Europe at the moment. (Assaf Rappaort, the CEO of New York-based Wiz, is currently in Israel.)
Last year, Google offered to buy Wiz for $23 billion, but the deal fell apart, sources say over concerns about antitrust issues, Wiz’s autonomy for development under Google Cloud and potentially even the price tag. At the time of the deal talks, Wiz was valued at $12 billion.
Not long after the deal fell apart, Wiz ran a secondary sale at a $16 billion valuation. Rumors were that it was in the process of fundraising at an even higher number. And business has been growing, with the company crossing $500 million in ARR last year and on track to double that this year to $1 billion.
Last year on stage at Disrupt, Rappaport didn’t rule out the possibility of an acquisition in the future but he also confirmed that it was Wiz who walked away from the deal, describing it as “the toughest decision ever” but also maintaining it was “the right choice.”
On a purely financial outcome, it looks like his instinct has held true.
More to come.
