The Wiz website on a smartphone arranged in New York, US, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Google on Tuesday signed a “definitive agreement” to acquire Wiz, the New York-based cloud security startup, for $32 billion in an all-cash deal, according to releases.
The deal, which will be Google’s largest-ever acquisition, will improve its cloud security offering in a world of advancing artificial intelligence threats. Wiz will become a part of the company’s cloud business. Google said it expects to close the deal in 2026.
“Google Cloud is a leader in cloud infrastructure, with deep AI expertise and a track record of industry-leading security innovation,” Google said in a release. “Bringing all this to Wiz will help make their solutions even better and more scalable, benefiting customers and partners across all major clouds.”
The acquisition comes after CNBC reported in July that Wiz had walked away from a potential $23 billion acquisition by Google and announced to employees that it would pursue an initial public offering instead.
“Saying no to such humbling offers is tough,” Wiz co-founder Assaf Rappaport wrote to employees in a July memo obtained by CNBC. At the time, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC that Wiz walked away from the deal in part due to antitrust and investor concerns.
Before talks with Google were reported, Wiz had set its sights on two goals: an IPO and $1 billion in annual recurring revenue. In the memo at the time, Rappaport wrote that the company would pursue those milestones.
Wiz was founded in 2020 and has grown rapidly under Rappaport, with the company hitting $100 million in annual recurring revenue after just 18 months. The company’s cloud security products include prevention, active detection and response, a portfolio that’s appealed to large firms and would have helped Google compete with Microsoft, which also sells security software.
The cloud startups products will still work on competitor platforms including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud, Google said.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Monday that the companies were in advanced discussions.
— CNBC’s Jennifer Elias, Jordan Novet and Rohan Goswami contributed to this report.
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