Google plans to acquire cloud cybersecurity company Wiz for $23 billion
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, plans to acquire the cloud cybersecurity firm Wiz for $23 billion. Founded in January 2020, Wiz has achieved this remarkable valuation in just four years.
Wiz’s primary strength lies in analyzing computing infrastructure hosted on Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, and Kubernetes to identify potential risk factors.
The company secures enterprise cloud infrastructure by creating a normative layer between cloud environments, enabling businesses to swiftly identify and eliminate critical risks, thereby mitigating significant security threats at their inception.
The reason behind Wiz’s rapid valuation growth to $23 billion within four years is evident: in August 2022, Wiz announced that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) had surged from $1 million to $100 million. By February 2024, its ARR had reached $350 million.
Although headquartered in New York, most of Wiz’s 900 employees are in sales and marketing, with its core engineering team based in Tel Aviv, Israel’s second-largest city.
Google’s interest in acquiring Wiz is driven by the value of its security team and the potential for substantial future profits. The acquisition is being spearheaded by Google Cloud’s CEO, Thomas Kurian. If successful, this acquisition would significantly enhance Google Cloud’s reputation as a secure cloud platform.
However, Wiz’s partnerships with various cloud computing platforms could be affected by the acquisition. Competitors like AWS or Oracle might cease collaboration with Wiz due to competitive or confidentiality concerns.
Google’s investment in security has been substantial. In January 2022, Google acquired the Israeli security company Siemplify for $500 million, followed by the acquisition of the renowned cybersecurity firm Mandiant for $5.4 billion in September 2022. Mandiant is well-known for uncovering the SolarWinds incident.
Although Wiz is nominally an American company, its key engineers are based in Israel. Consequently, Google’s acquisition of Wiz might attract regulatory scrutiny. Even if the deal is finalized, it could face obstacles from regulatory bodies.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
