Google's parent company, Alphabet, is giving an advanced talk again to get the Cloud Cybersecurity Startup Wiz. The companies were close to securing the deal at a $23 billion valuation last summer, but the deal was not possible.
The prices discussed this time will be higher, people said. A price of approximately $30 billion has been reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Thomas Kurian, head of Google's Cloud Division, is once again leading the effort.
Google Cloud considers Wiz's cloud security products to be suitable for its customer base, and Wiz's annual recurring revenue (ARR) is also attractive. This was $500 million last July, and there were plans to reach a $1 billion ARR in 2025, at which time TechCrunch reported.
Still, $30 billion will probably be a very premium price tag. With closed its last external funding round at a $12 billion valuation last May. The valuation reportedly jumped to $16 billion at the end of last year with an employee's public offer.
Wiz said there are no plans to make it public in 2025, but has hired former DreamWorks and Tanium executive Fazal Merchant as chief financial officer. Hiring a CFO is a sign that you will prepare your book for a public offer.
According to The Wall Street Journal, one reason for the previous discussion was that it was disagreeable whether Wiz would remain as a separate division or be integrated into Google Cloud.
A familiar said that the scrutiny of high regulations on large-scale deals during the Biden administration also contributed to the collapse of deals last summer.
Other investors told TechCrunch that M&A activity is on the rise. In most cases, a return to the negotiation table is correlated with FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson's hopes that there are less limits on larger transactions than previous chairman Lina Khan, said those familiar with just a handful of such negotiations.
Based in New York and Israel, With was founded in 2020 by four former Israeli military officers. This previously co-founded a cloud cybersecurity company called Adallom, which Microsoft later acquired for $320 million.
Wiz's supporters include Andreessen Horowitz, CyberStarts, Index Ventures, Insight Partners and Sequoia.
A spokesman for With refused to comment on the transaction conversation.