The Alphabet company has announced its biggest deal yet
Alphabet continues to expand its ecosystem through strategic acquisitions. The company has bought cybersecurity developer Wiz. The deal was worth US$32 billion. This was the largest acquisition of a venture-backed company.
It is worth noting that the parent company, Google, previously tried to negotiate with Wiz in 2024. At that time, Alphabet offered a sum of US$23 billion, but such a figure did not satisfy the ambitions of the developer. The company rejected the offer and focused on preparing for the IPO. The cloud security developer planned to go public once it had reached US$1 billion in annual revenue. That’s a mark it wanted to reach in 2025.
After the acquisition, Wiz will become part of Google Cloud, which will make the cloud service more competitive.
Wiz’s investors include big names such as Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures and Sequoia. In May 2024, the developer led a Series E funding round. It managed to raise US$1 billion, bringing the company’s valuation to US$12 billion.
Market trends
One of the obstacles in the early stages of negotiations last year was antitrust risk. The administration of the previous US president tightened control over technology deals. This could have prevented approval. However, the new administration took a more pro-IT stance, promising to lift restrictions and ease regulations on large transactions.
Despite these concessions from the administration, activity in the US M&A market remains subdued. According to PitchBook, the sector’s momentum slowed in 2025:
– only 2,486 transactions were completed in the first quarter;
– transactions totalled US$302.5 billion;
– the fourth quarter of 2024 ended with 3,620 transactions totalling US$416.8 billion.
Between 2022 and 2023, activity in the US venture capital market declined. The number of startup buyouts to exit investments was minimal. However, the sector started to recover in 2024. During the year, there were 823 deals worth more than US$88 billion.
The deal between Alphabet and Wiz is expected to be the largest for the market in the current period. It is also the largest acquisition for Google’s parent company. Previously, the acquisition of Motorola Mobility in 2012 was considered the largest for the company. The deal was worth US$12.5 billion. Two years later, Alphabet sold Motorola to Lenovo.
Alphabet is actively developing software for cybersecurity. Thus, in 2022, the developer Mandiant entered the structure of the company, and the transaction amounted to US$5.4 billion. Later, the company acquired Siemplify for US$ 500 million.
