EU clears Google’s $32B acquisition of Israeli cybersecurity platform Wiz

The EU Commissioner for Competition has cleared Google’s acquisition of Wiz, which was agreed upon last March.

European Union approval on Tuesday removed the biggest hurdle to completing the $32 billion deal, the largest in Google’s history.

Remaining approvals from certain countries, including Israel, are now needed for the transaction to proceed.

Google’s buyout of Wiz marks the largest exit in the history of Israel’s high-tech sector – nearly double that of Mobileye, the current holder of the title of largest Israeli exit, which was acquired by Intel for about $15.3 billion.

Founded in March 2020, Wiz reached a valuation of $1.7 billion in one year. The company was created by Israeli entrepreneurs Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, Yinon Costica and Roy Reznik.

The founders previously worked together at the cloud security company Adallom and, after its sale to Microsoft, continued at the Microsoft Israel R&D Center, where Rappaport held the position of CEO.

Wiz’s development center is in Israel, but the company is registered in the United States, with headquarters in New York. It also has offices in Palo Alto and London.

The company reported an annual sales rate of $100 million in August 2022. Nine months later, that doubled to $200 million. By the end of 2023, their annual sales reached $350 million.