Google plans largest takeover in the company's history: Wiz

Google's parent company Alphabet is making a new attempt to acquire Wiz, a start-up specializing in IT security. Last year, Wiz turned down an offer from Alphabet for 23 billion US dollars and instead prepared for an IPO. Wiz would have been the largest takeover in the history of the Google Group. Perhaps it has paid off for Wiz shareholders, as Alphabet is now offering 30 percent more, namely 30 billion dollars (27.6 billion euros).

This was reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing insiders. Negotiations are therefore well advanced. Google is increasing its efforts in the area of cloud computing. Wiz offers security software for this very purpose, with the help of artificial intelligence. This is designed to detect and prevent threats in real time. Founded in Israel in 2020, Wiz is said to have already acquired Amazon, Microsoft, and Google as customers. The company founders have experience: in 2015, they sold the IT security company Adallom, which they also founded, to Microsoft.

In the summer, they are said to have almost reached an agreement with Google; however, according to media reports, Wiz's venture capitalists have become shy because they feared lengthy reviews of the takeover by competition authorities. However, US President Donald Trump places much less value on competition than Joe Biden. Considering radical cutbacks at US federal authorities, it is unclear how much expertise and personnel would even be available for an in-depth review in the area of AI/IT security.

A dozen Youtubes

This makes it easier for financially strong conglomerates such as Alphabet to become even bigger through takeovers. For Alphabet, it would be by far the largest acquisition in history. The previous record holder is the Motorola Mobilities takeover in 2012, when Google paid 12.5 billion dollars (around 17 billion dollars adjusted for inflation), only to sell the majority of it to Lenovo two years later for just three billion dollars.

In 2022, the IT security company Mandiant joined Google Cloud. 5.4 billion dollars (equivalent to around 5.8 billion today) was Alphabet's second-largest acquisition to date. Google's first purchase worth billions was in 2006: the 1.65 billion dollars in Google shares for YouTube, which was considered astonishingly high at the time, looks comparatively modest today. Adjusted for inflation, that would be around 2.6 billion dollars today. In other words, at a valuation of 30 billion dollars, Wiz Alphabet would be worth as much as a dozen Youtubes at the time of its acquisition.

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