Wiz’s Chief Executive Officer Assaf Rappaport addressed recent acquisition rumors in a company-wide email on Monday, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, after Google’s talks to acquire the cybersecurity startup for $23 billion had collapsed. Rappaport informed employees that despite receiving offers, Wiz has decided to pursue an initial public offering instead.
“The past week has been filled with speculation about a potential buyout,” Rappaport wrote to his team, whom he referred to as “Wizards.” He acknowledged the flattering nature of the acquisition offers but emphasized the company’s commitment to its independent growth trajectory, stating, “We have chosen to continue on our path to building Wiz.”
Wiz walks away from Google’s $23B acquisition offer: Read the CEO’s note to employees https://t.co/ONIQ0Aq9LI
— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) July 23, 2024
Wiz is a cloud security startup founded in January 2020 by Assaf Rappaport, Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik, and Ami Luttwak. Rappaport is the CEO, Costica is VP of Product, Reznik is VP of Engineering, and Luttwak is CTO. The Wiz platform analyzes computing infrastructure for risk factors that could allow malicious invaders to take over cloud resources or extract data.
During the 2023 protests that preceded Hamas’s October 7 attack, Rapaport announced that Wiz would withdraw its funds from Israel. According to reports, Wiz decided to withdraw most of its funds from the accounts managed in Israel, leaving only the amount necessary to pay salaries, rent, and daily operations. It was reported at the time that Wiz was concerned about its investors’ reaction to the judicial reform which would increase the risk of their involvement in the Israeli economy.
With his February 2023 announcement, Rappaport joined Eynat Guez, CEO and Co-Founder of Papaya Global, who in January of the same year announced that Papaya Global is withdrawing all its funds from Israeli banks in response to the reform, explaining: “This is a painful but necessary business step.”
Google’s potential acquisition of Wiz might have attracted regulatory attention. The tech giant is currently facing legal challenges on multiple fronts. A Justice Department lawsuit, alleging Google’s use of anticompetitive tactics to maintain its search engine supremacy, is pending judgment. Additionally, the company confronts a separate antitrust suit, filed last year by federal authorities, which targets alleged unfair practices in Google’s advertising technology operations. This second case has yet to proceed to trial.
