Wiz: Google in advanced talks to buy cybersecurity startup

New York
CNN
 — 

Google owner Alphabet is in advanced discussions to buy fast-growing cybersecurity startup Wiz for roughly $23 billion, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN.

A takeover of Wiz, which makes cybersecurity software for cloud computing, would represent a major bet by Google on cybersecurity, marking the tech giant’s biggest-ever acquisition.

Discussions between Google and Wiz began after the startup raised $1 billion from venture capital investors earlier this year, the source said.

Terms of a potential deal have not been finalized and talks could still collapse, according to the source.

News of the Google-Wiz talks was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Neither Google nor Wiz returned CNN’s requests for comment.

The deal would easily surpass Google’s purchase of Motorola for $12.5 billion about a decade ago, the biggest takeover in company history. Google offloaded Motorola just two years later for a massive loss.

A $23 billion price tag on Wiz is nearly double the $12 billion valuation of the startup from its most recent round of funding.

In March 2022, Alphabet bought cybersecurity firm Mandiant for $5.4 billion as part of its efforts to help companies better address cyber threats and bolster its cloud computing business.

Google Cloud is central to the company’s efforts to diversity revenue beyond its core search advertising business. Although its cloud sales have grown, it has struggled to compete with similar services from Microsoft and Amazon.

Buying Wiz would be a “shot across the bow” at Microsoft and Amazon, showing that Google is making a “major bet on the cyber security space to complement its flagship offering in the cloud,” Dan Ives, managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush, wrote in a note to clients on Monday.

Cloud security has become especially important in recent years as companies have spent heavily to move data to cloud platforms. Just last week, AT&T revealed that nearly all of its wireless customers’ call and text records were exposed in a massive breach caused by an “illegal download” on a third-party cloud platform.

The Google-Wiz deal talks come despite intense antitrust scrutiny under the Biden administration of tech giants.

However, that antitrust scrutiny could be dialed back somewhat if Trump once again takes hold of the White House, Ives said, making the Federal Trade Commission “much weaker” and sparking an “accelerated merger and acquisition environment to take place for Big Tech.”

If the acquisition gets finalized and closes, it would mark a massive exit for Wiz and its founders — Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costica and Roy Reznik. The four executives met years ago when they were drafted into Unit 8200, the cyber intelligence division of the Israel Defense Forces.

Since starting up in March 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, New York City-based Wiz has enjoyed explosive growth. Today, the company says 40% of Fortune 100 companies are its clients.

Notable customers include BMW, Slack and Salesforce, and it works with major cloud companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Google.