As major tech companies like Microsoft and Apple face increasing antitrust scrutiny from the Biden administration, another tech giant is eyeing a significant acquisition.
The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the discussions, reports that Google is in talks to purchase cybersecurity startup Wiz for approximately $23 billion. If completed, this would mark Google’s largest acquisition to date. Despite the advanced stage of negotiations, sources caution that the deal could still fall through.
This acquisition would be nearly double the size of Google’s previous largest purchase. Wiz, a cloud security firm based in New York, aids companies in identifying and mitigating risks within their cloud infrastructure. The company was founded in 2020 by Chief Executive Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik, and Ami Luttwak.
In May, Wiz announced it had raised $1 billion in a funding round from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and other prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists. The funding round valued Wiz at $12 billion and was intended to position the company for a potential initial public offering (IPO) as it aims for $1 billion in revenue before going public.
According to Wiz, it is the world’s fastest-growing startup, having reached $350 million in annual recurring revenue last year. The company provides services to more than 40% of the Fortune 100 companies.
In April, the four-year-old company acquired Gem Security, a competitor specializing in real-time detection and response to attacks on cloud infrastructure.
If Google successfully acquires Wiz, it won’t be the first time the founders have sold a company to a major tech player. In 2015, Rappaport, Luttwak, and Reznik sold their previous cloud security startup, Adallom, to Microsoft. They left the company five years later to launch Wiz.