Cloud cybersecurity startup Wiz has refused a deal with Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which offered $23 billion for its purchase, Reuters writes, citing a startup memorandum. Earlier, the agency reported on ongoing negotiations between two companies, which were allegedly one step away from concluding a deal.
Image Source: Wiz
The US-Israeli startup’s CEO Assaf Rappaport said Wiz will now focus on its initial public offering as previously planned, aiming to achieve annual recurring revenue of $1 billion.
«It is difficult to refuse such humiliating offers, but thanks to our exceptional team, I am confident that I will make this choice,” Rappaport said in the note, referring to the acquisition offer.
As Reuters noted, neither Alphabet nor Wiz have officially confirmed the fact that they are negotiating a deal to take over the startup. What’s also notable is that Wiz’s memo makes no mention of either Google or Alphabet.
In a recent funding round, Wiz raised $1 billion in funding, raising its market value to $12 billion. According to Wiz’s website, the startup generated approximately $350 million in revenue in 2023. Wiz provides cloud-based cybersecurity solutions , allowing you to identify and eliminate critical risks on cloud platforms based on AI. His clients include about 40% of Fortune 100 companies.
If successful, the deal proposed by Alphabet would have become the largest purchase in the entire history of the holding and one of the largest in the technology sector in recent times, but the startup was not satisfied with something in its proposal. Perhaps later the details of the negotiations and the reason for the failure of the deal will become known. This marks Alphabet’s second failed acquisition attempt in recent memory, after abandoning a deal to buy online marketing software company HubSpot.