Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has struck a deal to buy cybersecurity firm Wiz for $32 billion US in what would be the tech giant’s biggest-ever acquisition, a move which comes at the same time it’s facing a potential breakup of its internet empire.
The proposed takeover announced Tuesday is part of Google’s aggressive expansion into cloud computing during an artificial intelligence boom. The frenzy is driving demand for data centres that provide the computing power for AI technology and intensifying the competition in that space among Google and two other tech powerhouses, Microsoft and Amazon.
If the all-cash transaction is approved by regulators, Wiz will join Google Cloud. Most of Alphabet’s $350-billion US annual revenue still stems from its search and advertising operations, but with the advent of AI, the cloud division has become a rising star at Google.
Annual revenue in the division was $26.3 billion US in 2022, and soared 64 per cent to $43.2 billion US last year.
The bid Tuesday, which would go down as the biggest-ever cybersecurity acquisition across the sector, easily eclipses the current largest acquisition in Google’s 26-year history — a $12.5-billion US takeover of Motorola Mobility in 2012 that didn’t pay off the way that the Mountain View, Calif., company had hoped.
Wiz, a five-year-old startup founded by four longtime friends who met in the Israeli army when they were still teenagers, is on track for an estimated $1 billion US in revenue this…
