Alphabet Buys Cloud Security Platform Wiz for $32 Billion
In one of its largest acquisitions, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has announced it has signed an agreement to acquire an Israeli start up Wiz, Inc., a leading cloud security platform headquartered in New York, for $32 billion, subject to closing adjustments, in an all-cash transaction.
The deal is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals and once closed, Wiz will join Google Cloud.
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 (multi-cloud), Google said.
Both cybersecurity and cloud computing are rapidly growing industries with a vast range of solutions. The increased role of AI, and adoption of cloud services, have dramatically changed the security landscape for customers, making cybersecurity increasingly important in defending against emergent risks and protecting national security.
Wiz delivers an easy-to-use security platform that connects to all major clouds and code environments to help prevent cybersecurity incidents. Organisations of all sizes, from start-ups and large enterprises to governments and public sector entities, can use Wiz to protect everything they build and run in the cloud.
Wiz is an innovative leader and continues to deliver new products with strong adoption, fuelling rapid business growth, including over the last 12 months in which it has begun to deliver new categories of cybersecurity solutions.
Google Cloud is a leader in cloud infrastructure, with deep AI expertise and a track record of industry-leading security innovation. Bringing all this to Wiz will help make their solutions even better and more scalable, benefiting customers and partners across all major clouds.
Improves Security
The combination of Google Cloud and Wiz will vastly improve how security is designed, operated and automated, providing an end-to-end security platform for customers, of all types and sizes, in the AI era.
It will also scale cybersecurity teams by providing them an automated security platform; lower customers’ cost of implementing and managing security controls; protect against new threats emerging due to the advancement of AI, prevent breaches, and help organizations respond to breaches much more efficiently; and boost the adoption of multi-cloud security and, as a result, customers’ ability to use multiple clouds; further spurring innovation in and the adoption of cloud computing.
Wiz’s products will continue to work and be available across all major clouds, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud platforms, and will be offered to customers through an array of partner security solutions.
Google Cloud will also continue to offer customers wide choice through a variety of partner security solutions available in the Google Cloud Marketplace. Wiz works with companies like Microsoft and Amazon to provide cloud-based cybersecurity solutions.
The company was valued at $12 billion in May 2024, which reportedly climbed to $16 billion later in the year in an equity offering to employees, and has been working towards an initial public offering
(IPO) in the months since the previous acquisition fell through.
In a blog post, Wiz cofounder and CEO Assaf Rappaport said that they expected this change to enable them to execute and innovate even faster.
“Becoming part of Google Cloud is effectively strapping a rocket to our backs: it will accelerate our rate of innovation faster than what we could achieve as a standalone company,” he added.
