On Tuesday, Google signed a “definitive agreement” to acquire Wiz, a startup based in New York that provides cloud security. The total acquisition was priced at $32 billion, making the agreement the largest deal Google ever made, and the company will fully pay in cash.
While the agreement will allow Google to access Wiz’s expertise in cybersecurity, Wiz can also access Google’s leading cloud infrastructure and its AI expertise. Wiz’s CEO and co-founder, Assaf Rappaport, stated the Google Cloud will fasten their innovation rate.
Rappaport, along with Yinon Costica, Ami Luttwak and Roy Reznik, founded the company in 2020. Under Rappaport’s leadership, the company achieved $100 million in annual recurring revenue within 18 months. Wiz also works with major firms like Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle.
Last year, Wiz turned away from Google’s $23 billion acquisition proposal and focused on its initial public offering (IPO) and generating $1 billion in annual recurring revenue instead. However, a source stated that the company rejected the deal due to antitrust and investor concerns.
The company also went through a difficult time in the past few years. In 2024, one month after failing to acquire Wiz, a federal judge ruled that Google monopolized the search market. Following which, the US Department of Justice requested the company to sell its Chrome browser.
This multi-billion-dollar acquisition was not the first megadeal Google made, but it was the largest by far. The biggest acquisition the company had made was in 2012 when Google, at the time before changing to Alphabet, paid $12.5 billion to acquire hardware marker Motorola and sold some assets worth $2.9 billion to Lenovo in 2014. Moreover, in 2022, Google acquired cybersecurity firm Mandiant at a price $5.4 billion.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, saw its shares fall about 2.3% on Tuesday, extending the decline this year to 15%.
