By Matt Egan, CNN
Photo: AFP
Google has announced a deal to buy rapidly growing cybersecurity firm Wiz for $32 billion (NZ$55b). It would be the tech giant's biggest-ever acquisition.
The all-cash takeover of privately held Wiz represents a big bet by Google on cloud security and cybersecurity in this period of explosive growth for artificial intelligence.
The Wiz deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, easily surpasses Google's previously biggest takeover: An ill-fated 2012 deal to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion ($21.4b). Google would later unload Motorola for a big loss.
Wiz, which makes cybersecurity software for cloud computing, was in talks last summer to sell itself to Google for about a $23 billion ($39.5b), sources previously told CNN. But the two sides failed to reach a deal and Wiz said it would instead focus on an initial public offering.
New York-based Wiz has enjoyed explosive growth since launching just five years ago. It was founded by Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costica and Roy Reznik, who met years ago when they were drafted into Unit 8200, the cyber intelligence division of the Israel Defense Forces.
"Wiz has achieved so much in a relatively short period, but cybersecurity moves at warp speed and so must we. The time is now," Rappaport said in a Wiz blog post.
At $32 billion, the Wiz acquisition ranks as the seventh-biggest takeover of a private US firm on record, according to Dealogic.
Some on Wall Street are hoping the Google-Wiz deal will represent the start of a recovery in dealmaking, which has dried up in recent months amid turbulence in financial markets and weakening CEO confidence.
The revived talks and sale agreement come following the departure of Biden antitrust regulators who took a very tough approach to mega mergers. Lina Khan, former Federal Trade Commission chair, moved to block countless transactions on antitrust grounds.
"With Lina Khan gone at the FTC,,,the M&A engines are back underway in Big Tech," Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday.
Of course, some Republicans applauded Khan's antitrust crackdown - including Vice President JD Vance.
Last year, Vance praised Khan as "one of the few people in the Biden administration that I think is doing a pretty good job."
-CNN
