Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, US, on Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. (Marlena Sloss/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Google parent company Alphabet Inc. is reportedly set to buy cloud-server start-up firm Wiz, in what would be the internet giant’s largest ever acquisition.
The deal, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, and later confirmed by Reuters, would cost nearly $23 billion. Wiz, a company founded in Israel and now run out of New York, was created by tech mogul billionaire Assaf Rappaport and provides real-time threat detection and responses for cloud environments by using artificial intelligence.
While Wiz is not a defense-specific firm, it does have business with at least one DoD entity: the Naval Information Warfare Center. Additionally, its focus on cloud security means it would likely play a part in the DoD’s JWCC (Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability) initiative — a plan to modernize the DoD’s information technology infrastructure — in which the Pentagon awarded contracts to Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Oracle.
Related: Pentagon awards first set of JWCC task orders to all 4 vendors
According to The Journal, Wiz is one of the fastest-growing tech companies. The start-up generated around $350 million in revenue last year and it works with 40 percent of Fortune 100 companies, according to the company’s website. It also partners with technology giants Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Azure and more.
Wiz and Alphabet did not respond to inquires from Breaking Defense at the time of publication.
This deal could be huge for Google, as it lags behind its competitors in the realm of cloud computing. According to The Journal, Google places third after Amazon and Microsoft in this area. However, its recent investments and possible acquisitions could bolster its position. Google’s cloud business grew 26 percent last year and this division was profitable for the first time, The Journal reported.
If the deal to acquire Wiz does go through, it would be an anomaly of sorts. In recent years, dominant technology companies have shied away from large acquisitions due to increased scrutiny under President Joe Biden’s administration and regulators’ continued animosity to companies getting larger through acquisitions, in fear of monopolizing the industry.
Alphabet is currently awaiting a verdict in a Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit that claims the company used illegal means to dominate in internet searches. The DOJ also filed a second antitrust lawsuit last year, awaiting trial, that accuses Google of unfair practices regarding its ad-tech business.
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