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Google (GOOGL-2.34%) on Tuesday announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Israeli cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32 billion in an all-cash transaction.
If it closes, this will be Google’s largest acquisition yet, more than double the size of its largest to date when it acquired Motorola Mobility (LNVGY-1.53%) for $12.5 billion in 2011.
“Together with Wiz, we are excited about the potential to provide customers with a comprehensive security platform that protects modern IT environments,” Google Cloud shared in a blog post.
Wiz is set to join Google’s cloud infrastructure Google Cloud to usher in multicloud cybersecurity, including a new-generation unified security platform that combines Wiz’s Cloud Security Platform with Google Security Operations.
“This acquisition represents an investment by Google Cloud to accelerate two large and growing trends in the AI era: improved cloud security and the ability to use multiple clouds (multicloud),” Google said in a press release.
The new platform will also incorporate technology from cybersecurity consultant Mandiant, which Google acquired for $5.4 billion in 2022.
Wiz’s products will continue to be available across all major clouds, including Amazon Web Services (AMZN-1.39%), Microsoft Azure (MSFT-1.48%), and Oracle Cloud (ORCL-2.76%) platforms.
This isn’t Google’s first dance with Wiz. The tech giant was in talks to acquire Wiz back in July 2024 for roughly $23 billion, but Wiz rejected the offer, saying instead that it would continue working towards an IPO. That didn’t end up happening.
Wiz was founded in 2020 by chief executive Assaf Rappaport, alongside Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik, and Ami Luttwak. The company deems itself the world’s fastest-growing startup, bolstered by the fact that annual recurring revenue hit $100 million after just 18 months in operation.
Rappaport, Reznik, and Luttwak previously sold their first cloud security startup, Adallom, to Microsoft for $320 million in 2015.
If the deal closes, it would be “a shot across the bow at other big tech stalwarts,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note on Tuesday morning — especially for Microsoft and Amazon, which are both active in the cloud security space. Google is “making a major bet on the cyber security space to complement its cloud offering, giving [Google] an edge on a number of cloud deployments and further monetizing the cyber security cloud space,” the note read.
Wedbush also sees Google Cloud building Wiz into a $1 billion+ cyber security arm over the coming years, with Wiz being the premier cloud-native application protection platform in the industry.
And with former chair Lina Khan gone at the FTC, the deal could also “open the door to a massive wave of M&A across the tech landscape,” Ives wrote.
“With an arms race on the cloud and AI fully underway, Big Tech stalwarts will continue to be aggressive on M&A and not shy away due to regulatory worries in our view,” Ives said.