Who is Wiz, the start-up that Google wants to buy for the record sum of 23 billion dollars ?

© Wiz

Google is in advanced discussions to buy the start-up Wiz for $23 billion. It would quite simply be the largest acquisition in its history. Why is this young shoot so coveted ?

A maddening growth

Wiz a was founded in January 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik, and Ami Luttwak. It is based in Tel Aviv, Israel, a country where the cybersecurity sector is thriving. Its four co-founders already boast robust experience; their previous venture, Adallom, was sold to Microsoft in 2015 for $250 million.

Like Adallom, Wiz specializes in cybersecurity for the cloud. This is a particularly popular sector. As the cloud computing market explodes, cyberattacks are of increasing concern to providers and authorities. The startup helps businesses secure their infrastructure by providing complete visibility and identifying potential risks.

The growth of Wiz since its inception is nothing short of staggering. After 19 months of existence, it reached an annual turnover of 100 million euros, then 350 million euros in 2023. Recently, the firm raised 1 billion dollars for a valuation of $12 billion. Almost no one is doing better this year, apart from the major players in generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Wiz is already collaborating with cloud giants Microsoft and Amazon . BMW, Colgate-Palmolive, Chipotle, Fox, LVMH, Morgan Stanley, Mars, Salesforce, Snowflake, Slack… The list of its clients is also impressive for such a young company.

In cloud computing, Google is still outpaced by AWS and Microsoft

The start-up is now considering going public, reports the Wall Street Journal. It is unclear whether Google's interest could change its plans. By getting its hands on such a nugget, the Mountain View firm could drastically strengthen its cloud activities and better compete with the two leaders in the sector, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. While Google Cloud is growing, it still lags behind its rivals.

Such an acquisition would dwarf Google's largest deal to date: its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility in 2012. The company also bought cybersecurity specialist Mandiant in 2022 for $5.4 billion.

Nothing has been decided at the moment. And if an official announcement were to appear, it's a safe bet that the antitrust authorities would examine the matter closely. In the United States as in Europe, regulators are increasingly suspicious of mega-mergers involving GAFAM.

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