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Google-Wiz deal fizzles out, company will pursue IPO

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

#51

Post by ilrwbwrkhv »

dboreham wrote: post #19
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…

Add me to the haven't heard of them list. Mind you I almost hadn't heard of Crowdstrike and they managed to brick the world.

Yup the world is big and even though we think we have heard stuff, there are more things beyond that. For example, I know a dev who makes mobile apps and clears 500_000 / month in profit and yet their app isn't really "popular". It is crazy.

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

#52

Post by temporalparts »

I think there's some behind the scenes drama. It takes a LOT of time and investment from both sides to build up to a $23B offer. I wonder if there was something some Alphabet exec did to piss off the founders. Or Wiz was stringing Alphabet along to hype up the IPO.

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

#53

Post by creer »

justahuman74 wrote: post #12

Can they just buy all the shares on the open market then?

Relatively few shares will be on the open market. If these few shares are sought after (bought by Google), the price will go way higher as more shares are bought out by Google. It's possible to mount actions where things are kept "quiet" and "hard to notice" (See Hermes vs LVMH a few years ago in France) - but even then it can fail (it did). Overall no, you can't buy the whole company at anywhere close to the stock market "market cap". It "works" when the acquirer gets control (enough shares to eventually vote out the current board leadership.)

What sometimes does work is to make a formal offer to buy all the shares that are presented, at some price quite a bit higher than the current market price. Sometimes that works. Occasionally that works for very little above the current market price.

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

#54

Post by dilyevsky »

oceanplexian wrote: post #24
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.

I did look at their financials - 77% gross margin with 30% revenue growth. Much higher than “commodity cdn” can command. If they cut marketing and r&d they’d be bagging half a b a year in profit but they are investing in growth as they should because it’s working

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

#55

Post by lmeyerov »

windexh8er wrote: post #46
leereeves wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first link alleges that Cyberstarts pays kickbacks to CISOs who buy their products. Is that legal?

It's definitely not uncommon. Illegal? Should be, the question is how they got paid and for what. There are so many C-level shills these days, it's sickening.

Everything is securities fraud, so a payola consortium pumping Wiz through funding rounds sounds bad. Wiz is great, so the question is if they are > $23B great, and how they got there. And more so, why would a gov prosecutor bet on this case over others, or a private investor who has shares & reputation at risk.

OTOH, maybe The Honest Services Statute where CISOs violate their fiduciary duty by prioritizing security/risk budget & focus to a VC paying them. I don't see most impacted companies making this public vs a warning or voluntary resignation.

It clearly happens a lot, but the only successful prosecution I remember was at Netflix: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-netflix-executiv... . A funny thing is the VC is doing all this semi-officially: many but not all of the illegal bits go away - the gov has less to prosecute on when everyone files their taxes accurately !

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

#56

Post by raldi »

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…

Wouldn't they be giving up a huge breakup fee if that were the case?

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

#57

Post by mirzap »

blindriver wrote: post #25

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.

A lot of them didn't, ie, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Netflix, Snapchat.

I wonder if this rejection is related to the CrowdStrike incident. Are they expecting or already experiencing a significant influx of new clients? I'm unsure if their services overlap, just curious.

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

#58

Post by boguscoder »

SJC_Hacker wrote: post #44
ssl-3 wrote: post #34

I feel like I am uninformed. Can someone provide some background? Who in the fuck is Wiz, and why in the fuck might anyone think that they're worth 11 figures?

I've been waiting for the Silly Valley insanity to stop for about the past 15 years, but its like its been permanently stuck in 1999 mode. With a few brief hiccups like Juicera and Theranos. I guess VCs just don't have anything better to do with their money, than throw it at a wall of shit and see what sticks

Im afraid its been 25 not 15 years since 1999 ;(

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

#60

Post by vlovich123 »

raldi wrote: post #56
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…

Wouldn't they be giving up a huge breakup fee if that were the case?

Maybe not if the breakup fee is forfeited if due diligence reveals fraud? Not sure.
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