Google announces historic bid to acquire cloud security startup Wiz for $32 billion

Summary

• Google intends to purchase Wiz for $32 billion in cash to enhance cloud security and multi-cloud capabilities.
• The acquisition reflects Google's focus on its rapidly growing cloud business.
• The deal is likely to come under regulatory scrutiny, but could be complete next year.

Google announced a big purchase today. According to a post on its Keyword blog, Google has entered into an agreement to buy cloud security platform Wiz to bolster security in its Google Cloud services for a staggering $32 billion in cash. Google says that the purchase "represents an investment" to "accelerate two large and growing trends in the AI era: improved cloud security and the ability to use multiple clouds." If the deal goes through, it'll be the largest acquisition in Google's history.

Wiz, founded in 2020 and currently headquartered in New York, has been providing cybersecurity services to both small and large companies for some time now. According to The Guardian, the $32 billion cash purchase would be the largest acquisition Google parent company Alphabet has ever made; Google's 2012 acquisition of Motorola Mobility is a distant second at $12.5 billion. Wiz turned down a purchase offer of $23 billion from Alphabet last year.

The eye-popping price tag reflects Google's continued emphasis on its cloud business, which, according to the Associated Press, is growing fast. Google Cloud posted revenue of $26.3 billion in 2022; last year, that figure had ballooned to $43.2 billion. Google and Wiz have both said that, even in light of the startup's new ownership, Wiz's services will continue to be available across cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Oracle.

This isn't a consumer-focused acquisition; Wiz provides cloud security services to enterprise customers. Google says Wiz's platform "identifies potential attack paths, prioritizes the most critical risks based on their impact, and empowers enterprise developers to secure applications before deployment."

The deal will face some scrutiny

Google's publicly gotten in its share of hot water in the antitrust arena lately, with high-profile monopoly cases involving Chrome and the Play Store. A historically large acquisition that could give Google an edge over competitors in the cloud services space is sure to raise some eyebrows at the FTC, where incoming chair Andrew Ferguson has said he sees it as his job "to take the antitrust laws very seriously." If all goes to plan, though, the deal should close sometime next year.