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Multiple outlets have reported Google is in talks to acquire cybersecurity firm Wiz for $23 billion
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Wiz offers tools covering key areas of cloud vulnerability
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Wiz is also a leader in the CNAPP realm and has consistently achieved triple digit growth in recent years
UPDATE 7/23/2024 10 am ET: Wiz has reportedly rejected Google's acquisition offer and will instead continue its pursuit of an IPO, according to an internal memo seen by CNBC. Read the latest here: Wiz walks away from Google bid: Here's what analysts think.
It’s impossible to say whether Snowflake’s very public woes had anything to do with it, but it looks like Google is about to make a huge cloud security play. Parent company Alphabet is reportedly in talks to scoop up Israel-based cloud security firm Wiz for a whopping $23 billion.
Wiz currently serves more than 40% of Fortune 100 companies across Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, Alibaba and Google Cloud environments. The company is basically a one-stop-shop for everything cloud security, providing tools ranging from cloud security posture management to help spot and correct misconfigurations to cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) capabilities and cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM).
Why does this matter?
Well, as Google Cloud noted in its most recent Threat Horizons report, weak or no credentials (which CIEM can help remediate) and misconfigurations (hello, posture management) accounted for over 77% of cloud intrusions in the first half of 2024.
“While these misconfigurations were not always exploited by threat actors, they remain an open door for potential malicious activity,” the report stated. “An example of a common misconfiguration issue would be service account keys being either overly permissioned or having insufficient preventative controls from malicious use.”
And Wiz is a key player in the CNAPP market, which analyst firm Dell’Oro Group predicted will grow at a 25% CAGR from $2 billion in 2023 to $6 billion in 2028. Among all vendors in the space, Wiz had the highest revenue growth at 105%, Dell’Oro noted. The firm added Wiz has consistently posted triple-digit growth since Q1 2019.
Google Cloud’s interest in cloud security isn’t new. The company acquired Mandiant – the cybersecurity firm that spotted the SolarWinds breach – for $5.4 billion in 2022.
Google parent Alphabet is set to report earnings on Tuesday of next week, so we’ll have an eye out for any deal announcements that might coincide with its report.