Google completes $32 billion Wiz deal

The largest-ever purchase of an Israeli-founded tech company was completed last Wednesday after multiple anti-trust regulators cleared the acquisition of cybersecurity unicorn Wiz by Alphabet’s Google for a staggering $US32 billion ($45.3 billion).

The completion of the transaction is expected to funnel an estimated NIS 10 billion ($4.5 billion) into Israel’s state coffers in tax proceeds, as the four founders of Wiz and many of its employees are Israeli residents and some of its investors are based in Israel.

The deal, first announced in March last year, marks the largest purchase of an Israeli-founded company after US giant Intel Corp bought Mobileye, a Jerusalem-based developer of advanced vision and driver assistance systems, for $US15.3 billion in 2017. For Google, it represents the largest acquisition the search giant has ever made. “The finalisation of Google’s acquisition of Wiz, roughly a year after it was first announced, sends a powerful signal about the strength and credibility of Israel’s technology ecosystem,” said Israel Innovation Authority CEO Dror Bin.

“In a period when Israel has been facing complex security challenges, the completion of a deal of this scale reflects deep global confidence in the talent, resilience and innovation that define Israeli tech.”

As part of the deal, Wiz will join Google’s Cloud business, but remain independent. The firm, which says that its cyber platform is tailored to secure any application developers build and run in the cloud, employs about 1800 workers, a workforce that will remain in place.