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Google to buy Wiz for $32B

reuters.com

641–650 of 951 posts

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#641
post #256

> Wiz has raised a total of $1.9 billion from a combination of venture capital funds and private investors > Wiz agreed to acquire Tel Aviv-based Raftt, a cloud-based developer collaboration platform, for $50 million in December 2023. In April 2024, the company acquired cloud detection and response startup, Gem Security, for around $350 million > Wiz was founded in January 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Roy…

I never heard of them until they were purchased for $32 billion.

I read their website and there must be something secret they've got cooking behind the scenes cause the valuation makes zero sense to me.

The whole thing reads like all the dozen or so "cloud security" plays out there.

Either I'm missing something big, or their products are outrageously far ahead of all the other similar sounding products out there.

I've been known to roll my eyes at a lot of these sorts of product catalogues in the past though and so I'm definitely biased and not the target audience for their marketing.

Some CIO out there probably really does think that their security problems will finally be over once they purchase another half dozen dashboards click through and look at.

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably it's a reference to the fact several of the founders are Unit 8200 alumni, which is part of Israeli intelligence. It's not the same as Mossad, though. As I understand it, Unit 8200 is the Israeli equivalent of the NSA, and Mossad is their CIA.

If you have a problem with Unit 8200 alumni, you’re going to have a difficult time buying commercially available security products. Palo Alto Networks, Armis, Checkpoint, and many others were either founded by or otherwise have former 8200 folks on staff. Then there’s crowdstrike, founded by a Russian. Or Fortinet, which was founded by Ken Xie (born in Beijing.) I guess you could base your entire security stack on F…

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Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#643
Google already owns GCP. Wiz obviously built something that differentiates themselves and fills a need. I am sure they support GCP. If so, why would google not copy and develop this functionality themselves instead of buying them out?

Among the wiz customers if they use GCP already then surely they will be willing to try the functionality of google builds it.

If the customer doesn’t use GCP, chances are they wont move to GCP and probably move away from wiz too after the acquisition.

I don’t get why they bought them instead of copying them

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#644

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is one of the fastest growing companies in the cybersecurity space. 6x ARR is quite low for that. 15x is a great deal for Google. I think Wiz accepted 15x because it is all-cash. The rate at which they are still growing, a series C/D company would dream of. [1] https://www.wiz.io/blog/100m-arr-in-18-months-wiz-becomes-th...

Google's whole business for the last 20 years has been buying, growing, and profiting handsomely from acquisitions.

And Apple on an almost 20 years old product, and Microsoft through its enterprise users, like 2 decades ago...Think about it Nvidia in 20 years is still just doing just very fast matrix calculations and idk Toyota is still making hybrids.

This assumption that a tech company is going to keep reinventing or inventing new wheels all the time has very little evidence in human history, while the opposite one, the many great tales of that super company that did so many great things and then is far more common.

The only exceptions are...academic? And that's because innovation and moving the field IS the role of research and academy, not companies returning earnings to investors.

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#645
post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never heard of them until they were purchased for $32 billion.

$350M ARR in less than 5 years. Aiming towards $1B by the end of 2025. You never heard of them since perhaps your decisions were not in the cycles of their product. Those who are , heard indeed (type of folks who look at Gartner magic quadrants).

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Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#646
post #546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not make sense. In 2024 Wiz had 10.7% market share. Revenue in the 1,5 to 1,7 Billion but they were not profitable in 2023. Become profitable in 2024 meaning costs are very high. Also looks like Google is desperate for growth in Cloud and they need to do something . They are paying as much money as their whole Google Cloud revenue in 2023. Revenue multiple is like 40x times revenue for Wiz. Exceptionally high…

>It does not make sense actually, it makes perfect sense. it's just that you (and I) don't have the right perspective. these giantcos are sitting on Himalayan ranges worth of cash, which is burning a fiery hole in their butts, and they don't know what to do with it. and they have more cash than sense, even though they always brag about having some of the smartest people in the world, and also have FOMO (to competitor…

[deleted]

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These companies are the closest you can get to a legal mafia, they are effectively charging companies around the world to keep them "safe". In other words, a job that is traditionally considered to be a basic service of the government is now being privatized by people that nobody knows if we can really trust.

There are other CNAPP solutions. If you do an evaluation you will see why WIZ comes out on top.

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Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#649
Open money laundering at its finest. Google, a Jewish company, transfers 45x money times ARR to Israel Jews.

Google could have built this in-house.

While millions and billions struggle this is how you do it at high level.

SoonDar goes brrrrrrr.

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#650
post #551

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Assume 1,000 customers each generating $2m in ARR with contracts. That’s $2 billion. Assume generous 6x ARR valuation, that’s $12 billion. That's the thing , were any numbers released or are we all just gonna speculate here ? What is their growth rate, profit margin etc etc ? How do they fit in Google's business, can current Wiz clients be upsold on GCP more easily now? Can other clients be brought more easily to G…

We all know a lot of people frowned when YouTube was acquired. Now we know that was an excellent deal for Google (now Alphabet), despite being a long bet. Good to have top security talent and good cloud security tooling if you're in a cloud play.

It makes more sense if you think about how 2006 looked like: - the only way to money in 2006 was advertising and the idea of advertising in internet videos was borderline crazy (remember when internet was tv but without ads?)

- it was just one of many potential interesting players. To think it could've been Vimeo, but the founders cared more about their main project: collegehumor

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