Google has announced its acquisition of Wiz, a leading cloud security platform, for $32 billion in a cash deal.
This acquisition aligns with Google Cloud’s strategy to enhance cloud security and support multi-cloud adoption in the AI era.
Wiz offers a user-friendly security platform that integrates with cloud providers to help organizations prevent cybersecurity threats. Its innovative solutions have made it a key player in the industry. By combining Google Cloud’s AI and security expertise with Wiz’s capabilities, the deal aims to provide enhanced security solutions across multiple cloud environments.
Gartner views
InfotechLead.com has received some inputs from Charlie Winckless, VP Analyst at Gartner, on the valuation of Wiz and the business potential of Wiz.
Is Wiz worth $32 billion considering Google made a bid for $23 billion last year? Last year, Wiz was valued at around $12 billion, according to Reuters news report.
Charlie Winckless: The offering price quoted is very high; it was high last year based both on the value and the estimated ARR of Wiz. However, Wiz is in our estimation the market share leader (and continuing to grow fast) in one of the fastest growing spaces in Cybersecurity, and an extremely strong brand. The purchase immediately expands Google’s visibility in this space significantly, as well as granting access to many Fortune 500 and above companies who have adopted Wiz into their businesses and operational processes.
Wiz has grown in revenue since last year, likely in excess of the 50 percent increase in the offering price but this is still a very high price based on the current earnings and valuation of the company,
Is Google lacking investment of its own in innovation in the Cloud security space?
Charlie Winckless: Google has been investing in this space; first internally in GCP and in 2024 expanding the coverage of their GCP specific tooling (Google Security Command Center Enterprise) from just GCP to AWS and more limited coverage into Azure. However, their own offering was later to the market and less feature-complete (or advanced)
Has Google faced a gap in cyber security space — without the acquisition of Wiz?
Charlie Winckless: The major cloud providers have been security providers inside their own clouds since the inception of these clouds. CPSM and CNAPP capabilities have been increasingly important, and were typically purchased as organisations went multi-cloud. Microsoft has extended their capabilities beyond their cloud, and Google had been doing so. Wiz accelerates these efforts for Google.
Does the acquisition help Google Cloud to add more customers?
Charlie Winckless: Not necessarily. It supports GCP customers with presence in multiple clouds, and it creates brand awareness in the security space. It does not directly (or in many ways indirectly) drive customers to adopt GCP, but it lets Google see revenue on clients using other clouds.
What are the latest trends in cyber security M&A space?
Charlie Winckless: Cybersecurity M&A continues, with many companies (unlike wiz) being bought for less than their valuation as consolidation efforts and reduced VC funding push for sales. Examples include Lacework by Fortinet, the assets of Skybox by Tufin. Other companies in more in demand markets such as Wiz are able to command prices more in-line with or in excess of their valuations
What are the latest trends in cyber security spending?
Charlie Winckless: Spending on Cybersecurity continues to grow; Gartner had forecast a 13 percent increase in revenue for providers in 2025 and to date vendor revenue expectations are in line with this. We may see some impacts to this in Q2 and Q3 as geopolitics has the potential to impact budgets and spending, but this is uncertain and we expect to still see growth. CSPM and CNAPP, the Wiz market, remains one of the highest growth markets in our estimation.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
