Google on the verge of its biggest acquisition to date

Google is considering buying Wiz, a New York-based cloud security startup with partners that include Amazon and Oracle, according to The Wall Street Journal. Based on the estimated value of Google's investment, $23 billion, this would be twice what Google paid to buy Motorola Mobility in 2012. If the deal goes through, it will be Google's most expensive acquisition to date.

As you can tell from the company description, Wiz offers tools and scanners for enterprise cloud security. Their main task is to protect the corporate cloud infrastructure, and above all they enable customers to quickly and efficiently identify and remove critical risks. This potential acquisition seems quite targeted towards the increasingly vulnerable Microsoft, which has recently been the target of several major security breaches.

The New York Times writes that the main man behind the acquisition attempt is Google's "cloud" boss Tomas Kurian. If a successful takeover of the company does indeed happen, Google could gain a reputation as a secure cloud platform. This is probably also one of the main goals of Google. A similar idea drove Google to buy another cloud security startup for half a billion dollars in 2022 and the $5.4 billion acquisition of Mandiant. The latter discovered the “SolarWinds” intrusion by hackers later that year.

According to the Times, a deal between Google and Wiz is very likely. However, it will not be completely easy and without challenges, because it can happen that something will soon come under the scrutiny of American regulators.