Penka Hristovska
Published on: March 20, 2025
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has revealed its largest acquisition to date — purchasing New York-based cybersecurity firm Wiz for $32 billion. The deal will see Wiz integrated into Google Cloud.
Wiz, a rapidly growing cybersecurity startup founded in Israel, provides cloud-based security solutions to major companies like Microsoft and Amazon. If approved by regulators, the purchase would surpass Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility in 2012.
The company was valued at $12 billion in May last year, with its worth reportedly rising to $16 billion later in the year following an equity offering to employees.
This marks the second attempt by Alphabet to acquire Wiz, following failed negotiations last year when the deal was valued at $23 billion. Last year’s acquisition attempt collapsed after Wiz’s directors and investors reportedly expressed concerns about potential antitrust issues.
This new deal will still face regulatory scrutiny, Alphabet and Wiz are hopeful that the current U.S. administration and new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Andrew Ferguson will take a more lenient approach. However, Ferguson has previously stated his intent to remain firm with big tech and is continuing an ongoing antitrust investigation into Microsoft.
The proposed acquisition, announced on Tuesday this week, is part of Google’s bold strategy to expand its presence in cloud computing amid intensifying competition between Google, Microsoft, and Amazon in the artificial intelligence space.
Wiz has reportedly agreed to a termination fee exceeding $3.2 billion. This makes it one of the highest termination fees in merger and acquisition history.
“We expect this change to enable us to execute and innovate even faster,” said Wiz cofounder and CEO Assaf Rappaport in a blog post. “Becoming part of Google Cloud is effectively strapping a rocket to our backs: it will accelerate our rate of innovation faster than what we could achieve as a standalone company.
“We both also believe Wiz needs to remain a multicloud platform, so that across any cloud, we will continue to be a leading platform. We will still work closely with our great partners at AWS, Azure, Oracle, and across the entire industry.”
