Google has confirmed plans to acquire cloud security firm Wiz in a deal worth $32 billion.
The deal marks the biggest acquisition yet for the tech giant, more than double its $12.5 billion buyout of Motorola in 2012, before selling it off again two years later for a fraction of that price.
The tech giant said the acquisition represents an investment to "accelerate two large and growing trends in the AI era" - namely cloud security and multi-cloud capabilities.
The acquisition comes less than a year after negotiations between Google and Wiz over a $23bn deal collapsed amid myriad concerns, including antitrust hurdles, disputes over how the company would integrate into Google, and more.
Reports at the time subsequently suggested Wiz would go public.
Another reported challenge to the last round of negotiations was whether Wiz would remain a separate company or be bundled into Google Cloud, according to reports at the time from the Wall Street Journal.
In a statement confirming the move, which is an all-cash transaction, Google said Wiz will join Google Cloud, confirming the firm's bundling with the cloud services wing.
Bloomberg reported co-founder and CEO Assaf Rappaport had previously said he hoped the company would become an independent security giant to rival Crowdstrike or Palo Alto Networks.
Last year, Rappaport told a TechCrunch conference that turning down the first offer was "the toughest decision ever", adding that "saying no to such humbling offers is tough, but with our exceptional team, I feel confident in making that choice."
Founded in 2020 in Israel but now based in the US, Wiz has reported significant growth in recent years, and was among a host of firms to capitalize on the widespread shift to remote operations during the pandemic. Last year, the firm’s headcount stood at 900, and was valued at $12 billion.
The company counts nearly half of the Fortune 100 as its customers — including Google's cloud rivals AWS and Microsoft — and has previously said it hopes to double its existing $500 million in annual recurring revenue to $1bn.
Why the Wiz deal works for Google
The Wiz deal follows Google's 2022 acquisitions of security firm Mandiant in 2022 for $5.4bn and Siemplify for $500m, highlighting the growing importance of cloud security tools.
Building on this growing security portfolio, Wiz represents a major step forward for the tech giant.
Following the speculation over last year’s acquisition talks, analysts told ITPro the deal made sense for the firm given its position within the broader cloud market and the growing array of threats faced by enterprises using the cloud.
"I think cloud is the major battleground for cyber attacks largely because the cloud is part of everybody’s IT infrastructure at this point," Gartner analyst Charlie Winckless told ITPro.
"The cloud is an increasingly critical, if not already critical part of at least 80% of organizations. And that means cloud security tools have become a must-have for large enterprises.
"They are a necessity, whether provided by the cloud provider themselves – and each of the cloud providers provides these capabilities within their cloud – or for the many organizations that are intentionally or accidentally in a multi-cloud strategy."
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