Google reportedly in talks to acquire cloud security company Wiz for $23B | TechCrunch

Google’s parent company Alphabet might be on the verge of making its biggest acquisition ever.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Alphabet is in advanced talks to acquire Wiz for around $23 billion. While the deal isn’t finalized, the WSJ says it could come together soon. Wiz offers an all-in-one approach to cloud security, ingesting data from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and other cloud platforms, then scanning it all for security risk factors.

Presumably, Alphabet executives see the deal as a way to fortify Google’s cloud business, which grew 28% to $9.57 billion in the first quarter of this year.

Neither Google nor Wiz immediately responded to TechCrunch’s requests for comment.

This report comes just two months after Wiz announced raising a $1 billion Series E at a $12 billion valuation. Founded four years ago by former Microsoft employees Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costica, and Roy Reznik, Wiz has raised a total of $1.9 billion.

At the time of its most recent funding, the company said it had $350 million in annual recurring revenue. It seemed to be on-track to roll-up smaller security startups through acquisitions, and eventually to go public, but it may find a different path as part of Alphabet.

The company’s investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Thrive, Greylock, Wellington Management, Cyberstarts, Greenoaks, Howard Schultz, Index Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Sequoia Capital.