Assaf Rappaport, Wiz, on Centre Stage during day one of Web Summit 2021 at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal.
Harry Murphy | Sportsfile | Getty Images
Google on Tuesday signed a “definitive agreement” to acquire Wiz, the New York-based cloud security startup, for $32 billion in an all-cash deal, according to releases.
The deal will improve the company’s cloud security offering by providing a platform for customers to protect against threats in a world of advancing artificial intelligence, Google said.
The deal comes month after talks had fizzled between both companies. In July, CNBC reported that Wiz walked away from a potential $23 billion acquisition by Google, announcing to employees that it would pursue an initial public offering instead.
“Saying no to such humbling offers is tough,” Wiz co-founder Assaf Rappaport wrote to employees at the time in a memo obtained by CNBC. At the time, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC that Wiz walked away from the deal in part due to antitrust and investor concerns.
Before talks with Google were reported, Wiz had set its sights on two goals: an IPO and $1 billion in annual recurring revenue, and in the memo at the time, Rappaport wrote that the company would pursue those milestones.
Wiz was founded in 2020 and has grown rapidly under Rappaport, with the company hitting $100 million in annual recurring revenue after just 18 months. The company’s cloud security products include prevention, active detection and response, a portfolio that’s appealed to large firms and would have helped Google compete with Microsoft, which also sells security software.
— CNBC’s Jennifer Elias, Jordan Novet and Rohan Goswami contributed to this report.
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