Google is closing in on its biggest deal: a New York startup that's less than 4 years old
- Alphabet is nearing a $23 billion deal for cybersecurity startup Wiz, The Wall Street Journal reported.
- The Google owner is in advanced talks to buy the startup, unnamed sources told the outlet.
Alphabet is closing in on a deal to buy Wiz, a cloud cybersecurity startup, for about $23 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Unnamed sources said the Google owner is in advanced talks to buy the four-year-old company, and a deal is imminent if talks don't fall apart.
Wiz would be Google's largest acquisition, worth more than double the $12.5 billion it paid for Motorola Mobility in 2011.
Alphabet has traditionally been cautious about large acquisitions. Its $2.1 billion acquisition of fitness company FitBit in 2021 previously faced regulatory scrutiny before being approved.
Wiz was founded in March 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costica, and Roy Reznik, and offers security for companies that use cloud computing providers such as Amazon Web Services.
In less than a year, Wiz was valued at $1.7 billion and won investment from Salesforce, Blackstone, and Algae, making it one of the fastest-growing startups at the time, BI previously reported.
The company was established in Israel but moved its headquarters from Tel Aviv to New York City amid big growth.
Wiz employed about 900 people across the US, Europe, and Israel as of February 2024.
Rappaport is CEO, while Luttwak is the CTO. Fellow cofounders Costica and Reznik are the VPs of product and research and development, respectively.
The four cofounders first met in an elite intelligence unit of the IDF during Israel's mandatory military service. Rappaport spent two years at consulting giant McKinsey after his time in the Israeli military.
Rappaport, Luttwak, and Reznik previously founded cloud security company Adallom, which was later acquired by Microsoft. They reportedly netted $25 million each from the deal, which was worth $320 million, per The Times of Israel.
The potential Wiz deal comes amid rising antitrust scrutiny by the Biden administration.
The Justice Department sued Google in 2020, accusing the search engine giant of monopolization. A verdict on the yearslong, landmark trial is expected later this year.
Google recently abandoned efforts to buy HubSpot, a maker of customer relations management software, Bloomberg reported.
Google and Wiz did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.