3 billion each for the founders: Google buys startup wiz

For Google it is the greatest purchase of the company's history, for the founders a gigantic success. In the summer of 2024 they rejected a 23 billion offer.

Google takes over the Israeli cybersecurity startup Wiz for $ 32 billion. According to both companies, both companies have signed a corresponding agreement. It is the biggest takeover in Google's story – significantly higher than the previous record of $ 12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility in 2012.

WIZ was only founded in March 2020-in the middle of Corona pandemic. There are four Israeli founders: CEO Assaf Rappaport, CTO Ami Luttwak, VP Product Yinon Costica and VP R&D Roy Reznik. The four have known each other since their time together in the legendary Israeli military unit 8200-a kind of cadre for tech entrepreneur. Before that, they had already set up the Cloud Security company Adallom together and sold it to Microsoft for $ 320 million in 2015.

In the summer of 2024, Wiz declined a 23 billion offer

Today the founders sit on three locations: Assaf Rappaport in New York, the others in London and Tel Aviv. WIZ has developed into one of the most valuable cybersecurity companies within a very short time, most recently rated around $ 12 billion after a financing round of one billion dollars in May last year.

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Google had already tried to take over WIZ for $ 23 billion last summer. But at that time Rappaport decided against the deal and instead announced a IPO. According to Rappaport, regulatory concerns and concerns of the investors played a role-the focus was on ongoing antitrust lawsuits against Google. However, Rappaport was also convinced of its own growth opportunities.

Three billion for the founders – each

Now Google has successfully added – both founders and investors agree with the deal. According to Israeli tech media reports, each of the four founders could emerge from the deal with around three billion dollars. A lucrative exit, even if the founders in Israel each have to pay about 28 percent taxes and thus would pay hundreds of million dollars to the state.

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WIZ offers a platform that recognizes and manages security risks in cloud environments-an area that is becoming increasingly important in the face of increasing cyber threats. Most recently, Wiz had almost 1,000 employees and was one of the fastest growing companies in the world: According to their own statements, the annual returns had increased from 100 million to 350 million in the summer of 2024 – within 18 months. According to media reports, they are said to have doubled to $ 700 million since then.