Google Alphabet’s parent company is again in advanced talks to get the start of online security WIZ, a person acquainted with the deal Techcrunch. Both companies were close to securing a deal with a $ 23 billion rating last summer, but the transaction failed to materialize.
This time, the price being discussed is higher, the person said. A price of about $ 30 billion was reported by Wall Street Journal.
Thomas Kurian, head of Google’s Cloud Division, is leading the effort again.
Google Cloud sees WIZ’s cloud security products as a good fit for its customers’ base, and repeated annual WIZ (ARR) income are also attractive. That was $ 500 million last July, with plans to reach $ 1 billion in the ARR in 2025, Techcrunch reported at the time.
Even still, $ 30 billion is likely to be a lot of premium price. WIZ closed its latest round of $ 1 billion external funding in a $ 12 billion rating last May. Its rating is reported to have increased to $ 16 billion in an employee tender offer at the end of last year.
Although Wiz said she was not planning to recover in 2025, she hired Fazal Merchant, a former executive in Dreamworks and now as a leading financial official. Sometimes employment of a CFO is a sign of preparing books for a public offer.
One of the reasons that the talks failed before was the inability of the two companies to agree whether WIZ would remain as a separate division or integrate into Google Cloud, according to Wall Street Journal.
The high regulatory review for major transactions during the Biden administration also contributed to the disruption of the agreement last summer, the person acquainted with the agreement said.
Other investors have told Techcrunch that they are seeing an increase in M&A activity. In most cases, returning to the negotiation table is linked to the hope that FTC President Andrew Ferguson will be less restrictive to major transactions than he was former President Lina Khan, said a person known with a small part of such negotiations.
New York-based WIZ and Israel was founded in 2020 by four former Israeli military officers who previously co-founded an internet security company called Adalom who later earned for $ 320 million.
WIZ supporters include Andreessen Horowitz, Cyberstarts, Ventures Index, Insight Partners and Sequoia.
A WIZ spokesman refused to comment on the deal conversations.
