Featured Image Credit: SERGEI GAPON / Contributor / Getty
Google looks to be upping their cybersecurity game following their biggest ever deal, as it's now acquired cloud security software startup Wiz for an eye-watering $32,000,000,000.
Having made major moves into the cloud and AI space in recent years, Google is seemingly intent on showing that they mean business through the purchase of Wiz - especially following their previous $23,000,000,000 offer that was denied on antitrust grounds.
As reported by the Independent, Google have made the deal to likely bolster their cloud services division, as Wiz provides industry leading protections that help remove critical risks that can arise.
Wiz was only founded five years ago in January 2020, yet has grown into one of the biggest companies within the cybersecurity field, providing support for industry titans such as Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and its soon-to-be owner Google.
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Their rapid financial growth is claimed to be record breaking, having scaled from $1 million to $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in just 18 months, as reported by TechCrunch.
The company was also valued at around $12 billion in a May 2024 funding round, prior to Google's initial $24 billion inquest, and that has now obviously been blown out of the water with the final $32 billion sum.
Google's previous highest purchase was their acquisition of Motorola Mobility all the way back in 2011 for $12.5 billion, although shortly behind that is fellow cybersecurity company Mandiant, which was bought out for $5.4 billion.
It has been indicated that Wiz won't become a part of the Google family officially until at least 2026, and from that point it would service Google's cloud unit while also still providing services to all of it's existing customers.
Reactions across the internet have been mixed between praise for Wiz and worries about the company's future, as some offer their own pessimistic speculation:
"So we are a year or two from Wiz shutting down?" questions one user on Reddit in response to the news, likely alluding to Google's notorious track record of swiftly shutting down its newly released services.
"Didn't Wiz turn down Google ~6 months ago for a $23 billion offer? Wild," remarks a comment regarding the company's swift jump in value, with another adding: "Turns out that was the smart move, given they ended up getting $32 billion."
Many have given their own endorsements of Wiz's services too, with one revealing that "Wiz is honestly that good as a product. I don't know how they managed to develop the number of features they've released in their short history."
This could then mark a major improvement in the security of Google's growing cloud services then, although many are still speculating that antitrust protections could prevent the deal from reaching it's conclusion.
