Google has made the biggest acquisition in its history. The company's parent company, Alphabet, has acquired cloud security startup Wiz for $32 billion.
Transactions will require regulatory and other approvals before closing. From what we can see, Google and Wiz have yet to confirm official things. Other outlets also report that transactions have been made. Previously, Google's biggest acquisition was to buy Motorola Mobility in 2011 for $12.5 billion.
The deal has been repeated in nearly a year and appears to be revived this week. (Assaf Rappaort, CEO of New York-based WIZ, is currently in Israel.)
Last year, Google offered to buy Wiz for $23 billion, but consultations fell apart, sources said concerns about antitrust issues, Wiz's autonomy over development under Google Cloud, and even price. At the time of contract talks, With was valued at $12 billion at the beginning of the year, based on $1 billion in funding.
Interim, there is a new US president who believes that the new regulatory regime will lead to a more favorable environment for large-scale technology acquisition that could have been previously impeded.
Google is interested in scooping up the Wiz into a turbocharged turbocharged in two areas. EnterpriseCloud is a business that lags behind AWS and Microsoft Azure. Security, some products offer, but none of the Wiz size, scale, or growth trajectory is provided.
Shortly after the contract collapsed, Withz ran a secondary sale at a $16 billion valuation. The rumor was that it was in the fundraising process with even higher ratings. Companies exceeded the $500 million ARR last year, doubled this year to $1 billion.
On the scene of Discrupt last year, Rappaport did not rule out the possibility of a future acquisition, but he also confirmed that it was Wiz that left the deal, describing it as “the toughest decision ever,” but also the “right choice.”
In purely economic outcomes, his instincts seem to be true.
More coming.