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Google closes deal to acquire Wiz

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Re: Google closes deal to acquire Wiz

#51

Post by sokz »

alephnerd wrote: post #46
sokz wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wix too. Very interesting that founders of Waze and Wix have Unit 8200 pedigree and Wiz co-founder was part of an elite recruitment program in the IDF. On account of the mandatory draft, it was bound to happen but those three companies have very similar names as well.

Everyone in Israel who is entrepreneurial tries to self-select into 8200 - it's the equivalent of American high schoolers who want to enter VC and tech entrepreneurship targeting CS@Stanford. In Israel, the university you attended matters less than the unit you served. For example, if you want to become a senior politician, you join Sayeret Matkal and if you want to become an academic you end up in Talpiot (which the…

Network effects wasn't what I considered although I should have.

Re: Google closes deal to acquire Wiz

#52

Post by pbiggar »

weatherlite wrote: post #47
pbiggar wrote: post #32

As I mentioned at the time, the Wiz acquisition is the largest transfer of Israeli intelligence operatives into Big Tech in history. Here's my full thread on it: https://x.com/paulbiggar/status/1902329587050148068

Link doesn't work

It seems to be working for me.

Re: Google closes deal to acquire Wiz

#53

Post by bonesss »

darth_aardvark wrote: post #40
0_____0 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wiz and Waze are both Israeli companies. Not that suspicious, I think it probably just sounds better in Hebrew.

Unlikely, since modern Hebrew doesn't have a letter for "w".

Is it possible the foreignness makes ‘W’ appealing as it signals cool modern tech alignment or something?

Like how ‘X’ attracts marketing and typographic knuckle-draggers in English, or how all our AI companies have butthole logos for reasons that only make sense if you understand the underlying companies and culture.

Re: Google closes deal to acquire Wiz

#54

Post by alephnerd »

sokz wrote: post #51
alephnerd wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone in Israel who is entrepreneurial tries to self-select into 8200 - it's the equivalent of American high schoolers who want to enter VC and tech entrepreneurship targeting CS@Stanford. In Israel, the university you attended matters less than the unit you served. For example, if you want to become a senior politician, you join Sayeret Matkal and if you want to become an academic you end up in Talpiot (which the…

Network effects wasn't what I considered although I should have.

It's the same in the US as well - if you join the right divisions and units and take advantage of educational programs with the GI Bill, you will open a lot of doors professionally speaking.

Re: Google closes deal to acquire Wiz

#55

Post by yomismoaqui »

xnorswap wrote: post #18
redbell wrote: post #16

Wiz joins Waze & Waymo.. there's something suspicious with the letter W here :)

W = Winners, it's just science ;) I bet someone has actually studied the effect of leading letters in startup names and funding & acquisitions, I vaguely seem to remember a story about it in the past.

Also wankers, just saying...

Re: Google closes deal to acquire Wiz

#57

Post by bigyabai »

alephnerd wrote: post #54
sokz wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Network effects wasn't what I considered although I should have.

It's the same in the US as well - if you join the right divisions and units and take advantage of educational programs with the GI Bill, you will open a lot of doors professionally speaking.

I'm sure the Room 641A employees have an excellent professional network, but I'm still going to judge them on a personal level.

Re: Google closes deal to acquire Wiz

#58

Post by moregrist »

alephnerd wrote: post #41
seanieb wrote: post #24

Congrats to to the Wiz team. Wiz is amazing. But, ugh, joining Google will result in less competition and all that entails. Not great for customers. It's a pity going public isn't worth it anymore.

> It's a pity going public isn't worth it anymore. Israeli VCs tend to be uninterested in IPOs in general - too much of an operational headache and it's difficult to exit a position quickly. In most cases an IPO isn't worth it for founders because an IPO means you lose operational control. It's basically the "Rich versus Kings" dichotomy [0]. Edit: can't reply > you can control the share allocations going into an IPO…

> In most cases an IPO isn't worth it for founders because an IPO means you lose operational control.

This is counterintuitive to me.

If you’re acquired, you’re giving up ownership and you tend to lose operational control unless you have agreements in place that say otherwise.

With an IPO it seems like you have a better chance to retain control: you can control the share allocations going into an IPO to give you solid voting power. While you’re accountable to a board of directors and theoretically accountable to stockholders, in reality management often runs the show, at least until the board runs out of patience with bad earnings.

Re: Google closes deal to acquire Wiz

#59

Post by jtmetcalfe »

jsheard wrote: post #5
Alex3917 wrote: post #3

Not to be confused with Google’s existing product called Wiz.

Or the Wiz IoT company, which seems like something Google might assimilate into Nest, but they didn't.

I thought so too at first, which would make sense as Nest does everything except lighting...

Re: Google closes deal to acquire Wiz

#60

Post by breppp »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #23
PunchTornado wrote: post #4

I don't understand Google's play here. Does it want Wiz to be a unique offer for GCP customers? or they will keep it cloud agnostic?

If you think Google is capable of making a singular coherent decision on a topic like this, you're dreaming. There's likely multiple competing visions. That said: the goal with Google M&A remains the same as always. Take competition off the board. I don't know this company or how they compete with Google, but 80% chance that's the play. They are culturally incapable of merging other people's tech into their own stack…

> goal with Google M&A remains the same as always. Take competition off the board. I don't know this company or how they compete with Google, but 80% chance that's the play

I don't think that's true here (what is the competing google product exactly?) or generally in cloud acquisitions, that generally buy into their platform missing features

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