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Google to buy Wiz for $32B

reuters.com

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Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#811

Post by amitport »

zifpanachr23 wrote: post #641
detourdog wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 c…

IMHO you are missing something big...

For Google they are worth 32B, they ARE the Google Security business from now on. They don't even have to be profitable themselves, having this aspect working means google get access to additional enterprise clients and in place they weren't previously present.

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#812

Post by stevenAthompson »

otterley wrote: post #485
StackRanker3000 wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why do you think Google is making this acquisition?

Wiz is a recognized leader in the CNAPP/DevSecOps market, and so they'd be naturally attractive to any cloud hyperscaler. Google had to either build or buy a similar solution to grow GCP; and they chose to buy. But $32B is an enormous hunk of cheddar, and I don't know why they felt compelled to pay that much. The ROI on such a large investment is unclear.

It gives them (legally debatable) visibility into how customers are using their competitions products. That's part of the reason it didn't happen under the Biden administration. Trump is very much against enforcing anti-competition laws though, so the deal suddenly began to make sense again.

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#813

Post by Rodmine »

hristov wrote: post #394
czk wrote: 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…

Looks like a payoff to me.

You are on to something. It is a company of the chosen.

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#814

Post by philsnow »

ryanSrich wrote: post #724
tptacek wrote: post #687

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard of Wiz, but would have had a hard time listing out their feature/benefit statement, because I don't work with CSPM tools. I don't think this "I have doubts about what you actually do" line is doing the work you want it to; it may be backfiring on you a bit.

CNAPPs and CSPMs are extremely common tools in cybersecurity. This is my concern. If you're in cyber and don't have knowledge of these things you're either in something insanely niche, in research of some sort, or lack critical knowledge that you should have. There's a big responsibility as a security practitioner to stay up to date on new tools and techniques. CNAPP and CSPM is not some new thing that was invented l…

I’ve never heard or seen either of those terms before reading this thread. What you’re calling “CNAPP” I’ve been calling “endpoint security”. I’ve been building internal “CSPM” tooling since 2014 with like raw cloud api calls feeding into graphviz, CI-like tests in a terraform repo, transforming the state of a set of cloud accounts into a form I can shove into z3 and ask questions about, that kind of thing, but never heard it called that.

I suppose if your company prefers to build over buy, you won’t be exposed to the kind of knowledge and vocabulary that buyers in the space use to orient themselves.

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#815

Post by OriginalMrPink »

ExoticPearTree wrote: post #761
detourdog wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

We use them and the product is very very nice and very lightweight to set up. Like for a cloud environment it takes about 5 minutes to get it up and running for a tenant. They add features weekly or faster.

Just curious, what problem do I need to have that they'll solve for me?

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#816

Post by deepsun »

epolanski wrote: post #655
deepsun wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same fears we're very loud when Google bought YouTube. GOOG fell 15% because of that IIRC.

It was a huge bet, it paid off for many reasons, not least luck. I remember 2005/2006 there were many websites competing for the video-website role, YouTube's luck was that...they were very permissive on uploads while competitors like Vimeo e.g. employed a reasonable amount of content moderators.

Yep, and investors' fear was that it would crumble under copyright lawsuits.

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#817

Post by megous »

marcus0x62 wrote: post #797
megous wrote: post #753

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you see Wiz in the above list of products in the post I'm responding to? In any case, as for wiz..., if companies want to stuff their secrets into a proprietary product that is controlled by intelligence officers of a hostile (as in a lack of respect for international law) foreign country, I don't care. I know I would not.

This thread is talking about Wiz . The comment you responded to was about the fact that security company founders often have intelligence community backgrounds and/or come from adversary states (from a US/European perspective.) It had nothing to do with VPN.

I can chose to what part of a comment I'll respond to. I responded to list of companies providing "VPN" software. Fortinet, paloalto/globalprotect, checkpoint,...

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#818

Post by yakkomajuri »

csomar wrote: post #758
weatherlite wrote: post #476

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…

According to a few articles (and Reuters) it is $500m/year

Well 500m/year when they last raised in mid-2024. There are hints as to their growth rate from their post about their 100m ARR milestone [1] and thus one knows they went from 100m to 500m in two years (mid 2022 to mid 2024).

They're thus probably higher than 500m now although the multiple still seems really high to me. But what do I know.

[1] https://www.wiz.io/blog/100m-arr-in-18-months-wiz-becomes-th...

Re: Google to buy Wiz for $32B

#820

Post by yakkomajuri »

Extracting this from my comment on a subthread to add color to the discussion here.

They announced in a blog post that they went from $1m ARR to $100m ARR in 18 months (Feb 2021 -> July 2022). [1]

Reuters in the article posted here reports they were at $500m ARR when they last raised in mid-2024, meaning they went from $100m to $500m in around 2 years.

One would thus speculate they are likely a few hundred million above the half-a-billion figure today.

The multiple still appears a little high to me (particularly given it's all-cash, which Google doesn't even have) but what do I know.

[1] https://www.wiz.io/blog/100m-arr-in-18-months-wiz-becomes-th...

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