a cloud cybersecurity startup, that has among its partners Amazon and Oracle. This acquisition would represent almost twice as Google spent in 2012, on Motorola Mobility.
Wiz is a tech industry startup company based in New York City, that was founded in 2020. It has grown rapidly under its CEO Assaf Rappaport reaching a $12 billion value this May.
Briefly, It offers security tools and scanners for the business space. In the tech industry, that means it develops a cloud security platform and offers vulnerability management, infrastructure such as code scanning, supply chain security, and data security posture management. Its clients are from fields such as healthcare, life sciences, and financial services.
Wiz says that “it creates a normalizing layer between cloud environments”, securing the corporate cloud infrastructure and letting businesses “rapidly identify and remove critical risks”. This startup acquisition may be related to an increasingly vulnerable-looking Microsoft that’s recently confronted several serious security breaches.
The New York Times claims that Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud chief would be the one that initiated the startup acquisition effort. It seems like Google wants to support and solidify its secure cloud platform reputation, as this would not be the first cloud startup company to buy. Despite all this, a representative for Wiz declined to make any comments about the potential deal.
Back in 2022, Google spent half a billion dollars on buying another cloud security startup and then completed a $5.4 billion deal for the Mandiant company, that discovered the SolarWinds jack later that year.
“Times” stated that the startup acquisition seems likely to happen, but it also comes with some risks. Nothing is sure yet and it can provoke reviews from U.S. regulators. The current Biden administration has supervised major antitrust actions, including the Department of Justice’s lawsuit over Google’s Search deal with Apple and the Federal Trade Commission’s unsuccessful attempt to stop Microsoft from buying Activision.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, takes this startup acquisition as a flourishing one, as it strengthens its cloud business. Only in the first quarter of this year, Google’s cloud business grew by 28% to a total amount of $9.57 billion. Wiz's complete take on cloud security involves integrating data from several platforms including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, and scanning it for security risk elements.