Google’s parent company, Alphabet has agreed to buy Israeli cybertech company Wiz for $32 billion, according to the Financial Times, making it the largest acquisition in Israeli history.
The purchase was later confirmed by Assaf Rappaport, the CEO and cofounder of Wiz, in a post on LinkedIn, though he did not mention the price.
First discussion of a Google buy-out of Wiz began in July last year, when it was reported that Alphabet was in talks to purchase the Israeli unicorn for a sum of $23 billion.
The acquisition collapsed, however, as a result of antitrust concerns raised by some Wiz investors and directors.
The new deal, which is expected to be announced officially on Wednesday, will set records not only because it’s the largest acquisition in Israel, but also because it’s the largest acquisition ever made by Google.
Alphabet’s biggest acquisition before now was the $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility.
In his post, Rappaport confirmed the company’s commitment to being a multicloud platform, and said: “Today Google has entered into an agreement to acquire Wiz. Our commitment to the Wiz mission has never been stronger: we aim to help every organization secure everything they build and run in the cloud – any cloud. We believe that our partnership with Google will supercharge this vision and help us achieve it even faster.
“We’re not maintaining our pace of innovation – we’re about to accelerate it! Even by Wiz standards. With the incredible resources of Google Cloud, we’re ready to move faster than ever,” he added.
Israel wouldn’t have earned its reputation as the Startup Nation if some of the thousands of companies that have come out of this small country hadn’t earned big bucks for their investors.
How big? Google’s parent company Alphabet has just paid out a whopping $32 billion to purchase cybersecurity company Wiz, making it the largest acquisition in both Israel and Google’s respective histories.
Wiz was founded in 2020 by former Microsoft and Adallom executives Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costica, and Roy Reznik.
It provides organizations with a security platform to identify and remove risks in the cloud, and supports many major Fortune 100 companies.
The company, which is headquartered in New York, with offices in Israel, has grown rapidly, and in May last year, was already valued at $12 billion, after it closed a funding round of $1 billion led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Thrive Capital.
In July last year, Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, said he believed Google was seeking to acquire Wiz because it doesn’t have a significant cybersecurity player in its portfolio.
“They’re competing with Amazon and Microsoft on cloud services, and both of those companies have clear cyber strategies. Acquiring Wiz could fill this gap for Google, especially in cloud security,” he said.
Before now, the biggest deal in Israeli tech history was when US giant Intel purchased driver assistance systems company Mobileye for $15.3 billion in 2017.
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