Google-Wiz deal fizzles out, company will pursue IPO • Hacker News Board

Re: Google-Wiz deal fizzles out, company will pursue IPO

#21

Post by walterbell » Tue, Jul 23, 2024, 4:22 AM UTC

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/b1a1jn00hc

> [Cyberstarts] has a portfolio of only 22 companies whose combined value is $35 billion. Five of these companies are unicorns, first and foremost Wiz, which seems to be breaking all the rules of growth and success and setting new standards in the industry.. In all three of his funds, Ra'anan shows an internal rate of return of more than 100%, an unusual figure even for the best funds in the world.. The first sales come from the loyal CISOs who work with the fund.. The whole CISO advisory committee issue has gotten out of hand for corporate America.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hjpwti2dr

> Wiz announced two months ago that it had raised $1 billion at a $12 billion valuation, bringing the company’s total funding to $1.9 billion.

Re: Google-Wiz deal fizzles out, company will pursue IPO

#22

Post by kuzmanov » Tue, Jul 23, 2024, 4:22 AM UTC

ds wrote: post #7

Far more likely is Google was not willing to complete the deal and was pulling the plug after looking at internal data. Wiz, fearing the bad press of Google backing out rushes to tell journalists that THEY are walking away because they are worth more. Wiz's valuation is insane. Most people havent even heard of them. I think it was a > 60x ARR multiple on this deal. Id actually be kinda pissed if I was a google shareh…

This is exactly how I felt as a shareholder. There is no real reason to pay this much and it seems like Google is the one that walked away from the deal.

Re: Google-Wiz deal fizzles out, company will pursue IPO

#23

Post by mupuff1234 » Tue, Jul 23, 2024, 4:23 AM UTC

From the start this seemed more like a PR move from Wiz than a real offer.

Re: Google-Wiz deal fizzles out, company will pursue IPO

#24

Post by oceanplexian » Tue, Jul 23, 2024, 4:27 AM UTC

Centigonal wrote: post #13

Founded in 2020, with a $23B valuation, aiming for $1B ARR? CloudFlare is worth $26B and had ~$1.3B revenue last year. Something's fishy here.

Look at their financials, CloudFlare might be popular among the HN crowd but the stock is massively overvalued. At the end of the day they are a commodity CDN that somehow can’t run a profitable business.

Re: Google-Wiz deal fizzles out, company will pursue IPO

#25

Post by blindriver » Tue, Jul 23, 2024, 4:27 AM UTC

Lots of companies have regretted passing up on an acquisition, especially one this large and of a company this young. My bet would be that this company is making the same mistake as Yahoo, Groupon, etc.

Re: Google-Wiz deal fizzles out, company will pursue IPO

#26

Post by HaZeust » Tue, Jul 23, 2024, 4:27 AM UTC

worthless-trash wrote: post #3

This is great news ! I use wiz for my home lighting and automation, I'm so glad that google did not buy it due to its habit of killing things that I find useful. I want my hardware to last longer than the current decision makers employment. Edit: hah, the site becomes available AFTER i submit so now I can read it.

This is wiz.io BUT I appreciate the enthusiasm

Re: Google-Wiz deal fizzles out, company will pursue IPO

#27

Post by nothrowaways » Tue, Jul 23, 2024, 4:28 AM UTC

23B is a staggering number for a 4 year old cyber security startup with 900 employees

Re: Google-Wiz deal fizzles out, company will pursue IPO

#28

Post by chii » Tue, Jul 23, 2024, 4:29 AM UTC

mrinfinitiesx wrote: post #9

Sometimes it's not about the money, it's actually about systems security and the level of which you actually want to build, deploy, and protect great products and infrastructure. 23 billion is a LOT of money. Looking forward to see how the IPO plays out.

> Sometimes it's not about the money

it's always about the money.

Re: Google-Wiz deal fizzles out, company will pursue IPO

#29

Post by chatmasta » Tue, Jul 23, 2024, 4:32 AM UTC

ds wrote: post #7

Far more likely is Google was not willing to complete the deal and was pulling the plug after looking at internal data. Wiz, fearing the bad press of Google backing out rushes to tell journalists that THEY are walking away because they are worth more. Wiz's valuation is insane. Most people havent even heard of them. I think it was a > 60x ARR multiple on this deal. Id actually be kinda pissed if I was a google shareh…

They’ve had some really nice writeups but I always thought they were your generic security firm doing some bug hunting. Recently I happened upon their domain submissions to HN and saw they raised $1b+ and was like wtf? What do they actually do? I mean what are their products that people pay for?

Maybe there are obvious answers to these questions, but if a company is worth $23bn I’d expect that as somebody in the industry, I could answer them without doing in depth research.

This is exactly the kind of gut feeling of “something’s off” that I’ve learned to pay attention to.

Re: Google-Wiz deal fizzles out, company will pursue IPO

#30

Post by flynapse » Tue, Jul 23, 2024, 4:33 AM UTC

Major respect. I can only wonder what it feels like to possess that intense confidence. The appeal of 'a bird in hand' would almost certainly overwhelm most of us.