Business | Wiz kid

Google wants a piece of Microsoft’s cyber-security business

A $23bn acquisition of Wiz, an Israeli startup, is the search giant’s biggest ever

The Google Cloud logo.
Photograph: Getty Images

IN LATE 2022 Wiz, a cyber-security startup, boasted that it was “the fastest-growing software company ever”. A stretch, maybe, but not a big one. At that point, 18 months after it was founded, annualised sales hit $100m. By 2023 they were $350m. In May Wiz raised $1bn at a $12bn valuation. On July 14th it emerged that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, was in talks to acquire Wiz for $23bn. It would be the biggest purchase of a cyber-security firm in history and Alphabet’s biggest takeover ever (see chart 1).

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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Wiz kid”

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