Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., during Stanford’s 2024 Business, Government, and Society forum in Stanford, California, April 3, 2024.
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Google is in advanced talks to accumulate cybersecurity firm Wiz for $23 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing people acquainted with the matter.
The people familiar told the Journal that a deal could come soon.
Wiz was founded in 2020, and has grown at a rapid clip under CEO Assaf Rappaport. It had been eyeing an IPO as recently as May, when the corporate achieved a valuation of $12 billion.
A representative for Wiz declined to comment.
Wiz’s cloud security offering gives executives and cybersecurity professionals insight into the corporate’s full cloud presence, something appealing to large firms with significant computing resources. It’s backed by a roster of blue chip firms, including Israeli VC firm Cyberstarts, Index Ventures, Insight Partners and Sequoia Capital.
If accomplished, the deal could be Google’s largest ever acquisition. It will also underline a transparent and continued bet on cybersecurity, at a time when nation state and criminal actors have managed to disrupt governments and huge organizations. Google has made large cyber acquisitions before: The corporate acquired cybersecurity firm Mandiant for $5.4 billion two years ago.
But the corporate now faces unprecedented levels of antitrust scrutiny. The Justice Department has sued Google twice on antitrust grounds. The corporate’s acquisition practices were highlighted in probably the most recent litigation, filed in 2023.
But its reported talks with Wiz would suggest that the corporate has developed a fresh appetite for M&A, competitive concerns notwithstanding. Google had been in talks to accumulate sales software maker Hubspot, CNBC previously reported, but its pursuit had reportedly cooled.
Google didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
