Eight months after negotiations between the two companies collapsed, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is expected to announce within hours its acquisition of Israeli cybersecurity giant Wiz in a deal valued at approximately $33 billion — $10 billion more than was discussed during their previous round of talks.
This is set to be the largest acquisition ever of an Israeli company and Alphabet's largest acquisition to date. Until now, the biggest exit for an Israeli company was Intel’s $15 billion purchase of Mobileye in 2017. Alphabet’s largest previous acquisition was Motorola Mobility in 2011 for $12.5 billion.
The deal, which will be in cash, is pending regulatory approval. Once finalized, each of Wiz’s four founders—CEO Assaf Rappaport, Chief Product Officer Yinon Costica, Chief Technology Officer Ami Luttwak, and Chief R&D Officer Roy Reznik—stands to earn between $2 billion and $3 billion. Wiz’s 1,800 employees are also expected to benefit significantly from the acquisition through "sale and retention" bonuses, reportedly some of the highest ever awarded in Israel. Senior employees could receive payouts worth millions, while junior employees are expected to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Wiz is considered one of Israel’s most valuable and stable high-tech companies. Just last week, the company held an extravagant Purim party featuring Israel’s top performers, with an estimated budget of 15 million shekels. Sources close to the company say the deal with Google will not lead to cutbacks; rather, Wiz plans to increase its hiring. It currently has around 100 open positions.
What changed since last summer?
According to the terms of the deal, Wiz will remain an independent division within Alphabet, similar to LinkedIn’s structure under Microsoft. The company’s headquarters will stay in Israel, and CEO Assaf Rappaport has agreed to remain in his role for at least three more years. Wiz will continue to work with Google’s direct competitors in the cloud space.
So what has changed since July 2023, when Wiz rejected Alphabet’s earlier $23 billion offer, declaring its ambitions to become a $100 billion public company? Back then, Rappaport publicly stated his goal was to build a major, publicly traded cybersecurity firm capable of competing with the world’s largest players. Wiz even hired its first CFO two months ago, in preparation for a potential IPO.
Insiders say three factors led to the shift in Wiz’s stance: Alphabet’s higher offer, increased by $10 billion; the change in U.S. leadership, raising hopes for faster regulatory approval; and Wiz’s successful negotiations to maintain operational independence under Alphabet. Industry experts also note that Wiz’s leadership may have concluded that an IPO would be too difficult or risky in the current market.
The earlier leak about Alphabet’s interest in acquiring Wiz also boosted the company’s profile and investor enthusiasm, with major backers such as Andreessen Horowitz and Insight Partners becoming more involved.
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For Alphabet, acquiring Wiz significantly strengthens its position in cloud computing and cybersecurity — areas currently dominated by competitors Microsoft and Amazon. Microsoft, the global leader in cybersecurity revenue, has its main cyber center in Herzliya, just minutes from Wiz’s headquarters. Notably, before founding Wiz, Assaf Rappaport served as CEO of Microsoft Israel.
According to reports, Alphabet’s Cloud division chief Thomas Kurian is leading the acquisition process. Kurian previously oversaw Alphabet’s acquisition of Israeli cybersecurity startup Siemplify for several hundred million dollars.
Wiz was founded in 2020 by Rappaport, Costica, Luttwak and Reznik, the same team behind Adallom, which was sold to Microsoft. Wiz develops cloud security solutions for organizations and quickly became a market leader. The company has raised $1.8 billion to date and last year announced it had surpassed $500 million in annual recurring revenue. Its flagship product, CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management), specializes in detecting vulnerabilities across cloud environments, servers, and other critical components.