Google"s parent company Alphabet is reportedly in talks for an acquisition that, if it goes through, will be the company"s biggest purchase ever. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, claims that Google is in negotiations to purchase the cybersecurity company Wiz for $23 billion. As of this writing, neither Google nor Wiz have commented on the Wall Street Journal"s report.
Wiz was first launched just a few years ago, in 2020. The company specializes in protecting cloud systems and since its launch it has detected security flaws from many companies, including one of Google"s rivals Microsoft. In May 2023, Wiz revealed it had found a flaw in Wiz in Microsoft"s search engine Bing that would have allowed hackers to not only get personal information from the engine but to actually alter its search results.
Since its founding, Wiz has raised a total of $1.9 billion from a variety of investors and companies. CNBC reports that as recently as May, the company was valued at $12 billion and that it was considering launching its own IPO to make it a publicly traded business.
If Google does indeed buy Wiz, it would surpass the $12.5 billion deal that it made in 2012 to acquire Motorola Mobility. However, that purchase was quickly reversed as Google sold off its interest in Motorola to Lenovo for a mere $2.91 billion in 2014.
A deal to buy Wiz would almost certainly get at least some attention from antitrust regulators in the US and elsewhere, but it remains to be seen if those agencies would attempt to stop Google from buying the company.
In April there were unconfirmed reports that Google was thinking about acquiring HubSpot, a online marketing company that had a market value of $35 billion. However, it appears those talks, if indeed they did occur, did not conclude in a deal.