Google secures $32 billion deal for cybersecurity startup Wiz 3/18/25

TechCheck

CNBC

Disruptors, Investing, Faang, Technology, Business, Management, Cnbc, Tech

4.8 • 56 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Google parent Alphabet is sealing a $32 billion deal to acquire the cybersecurity startup Wiz. We dig into the acquisition, which is Alphabet’s largest, and look at why the company is willing to pay a premium— nearly $10 billion more than last summer’s failed bid – to bolster its security technology in the face of advancing AI and cybersecurity threats

Transcript

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0:00.0	Big deal news today. Alphabet, buying cybersecurity startup WIS for $32 billion, its biggest acquisition ever.
0:07.8	Our Deirdre Bosa has the details for today's tech check segment. Morning, Deirdre.
0:11.6	Hey, Sarah. Let's talk about the price tag because any way you look at this, Google paid a premium.
0:16.8	A 40 to 50 times revenue multiple, more than double whizz's last private valuation.
0:22.1	And as you said, this is Google's largest acquisition by a long shot.
0:26.8	So why did Google pay up?
0:28.7	Well, a key reason is summed up in this one chart.
0:31.5	Google Cloud is a distant third among the hypers behind Microsoft and Amazon's AWS.
0:37.5	And in the age of AI, cloud infrastructure is the battleground.
0:42.4	Security is critical for enterprises adopting AI at scale.
0:45.9	WIS provides a few unique advantages here.
0:48.1	One, it is cloud native, meaning that it was built for the modern cloud from the ground up,
0:53.1	not retrofitted from on-premise
0:55.3	models like legacy cyber security firms. That makes WIS faster to deploy, easier to scale,
1:01.4	more adaptable to multi-cloud environments, multi-cloud being its second advantage.
1:06.0	Enterprises are increasingly resisting lock-in to a single cloud provider, especially as AI workloads are
1:12.6	expensive and pricing becomes more dynamic. Unlike a Microsoft, which is deeply tied to its own
1:17.8	security stack, WIS was built for multi-cloud, meaning it can secure workloads across
1:22.5	AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. Now, WIS's multi-cloud edge could also give this deal a better chance of regulatory
1:29.5	approval, reducing the likelihood of arguments that Google's using this deal to force users
1:34.5	into its ecosystem.
1:36.6	Instead, it gives companies more freedom, you could argue, to work across cloud providers.
	...

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