The fast-growing cloud security vendor loses little if a reported antitrust probe sinks the $32 billion acquisition deal.
When Google first attempted to acquire cloud security wunderkind Wiz last summer for $23 billion, the company’s leadership had a surprising response: We’re flattered, but no thanks.
Surprising to the average observer, at least. Those who’d been following Wiz closely, however, knew just how rare of a company this is — one that would’ve seemed to be destined for something bigger than an acquisition, no matter the price tag or acquirer.
[Related: Wiz Product, Channel Strategy Led To $32B Google Acquisition Deal: Partner CEO]
Of course, we now know that Google was not to be so easily dissuaded, and the tech mega-giant returned in March with a whole lot more cash. This time, Google’s $32 billion offer proved to be acceptable to Wiz and its investors, and the die was cast.
Or so it seemed. Even though analysts have not expected much bothersome antitrust scrutiny for the Google-Wiz deal, the Justice Department is now reportedly undertaking a review that could jeopardize the whole thing.
It is of course the DOJ’s job, under federal antitrust laws, to scrutinize whether mega-mergers such as this one may substantially harm competition. But the existence of Bloomberg’s report would seem to signal something out of the ordinary here in the review process, though at this point it’s not clear what it could all mean for the deal.
Anyway, my bigger point is that no matter the outcome of the antitrust review, Wiz will almost certainly come out a winner. And not just because the company would reap a $3.2 billion breakup fee, though that certainly doesn’t hurt.
The bigger win, however, is something I pointed out back when the first Google-Wiz deal dissolved last July. I’m not sure I can phrase it any better, so I will quote myself here: “Wiz has one of the rarest opportunities in the industry. [It’s] on track to become the next cybersecurity giant, joining the ranks of Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet and CrowdStrike [and] Wiz doesn’t need Google’s help to get there.”
I believe this is just as true now as it was then.
To its credit, Wiz has not shown any signs of deviating from its pre-Google course, with the company continuing to drive forward its cloud and AI security platform and release noteworthy threat research it has been known for since its founding in 2020.
As just one example, less than a week after the Google deal was announced in March, Wiz reached out with an offer to speak with Co-Founder and CTO Ami Luttwak on an unrelated but crucial topic: Wiz’s research team had uncovered what were likely the most serious Kubernetes vulnerabilities in years.
And so rather than kicking back and relaxing after the acquisition deal was announced — the largest in Google’s history, by the way — Luttwak was instead on Zoom with people like myself, trying to get the word out about something broadly important to the tech world.
It’s that unwavering approach, as much as anything else, that I believe has made Wiz stand out so clearly from the thousands of other cybersecurity vendors operating today. And no matter what happens next, if Wiz can manage to stay Wiz, it has little to lose.
