The cybersecurity company valued most recently at $12 billion will instead pursue an eventual IPO, CEO Assaf Rappaport said in a letter obtained by Forbes.
Google’s talks to purchase cybersecurity unicorn Wiz are now dead, per a letter from Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport shared with the company’s employees on Monday night.
“I know the last week has been intense, with the buzz about a potential acquisition. While we are flattered by offers we have received, we have chosen to continue on our path to building Wiz,” Rappaport wrote Wiz staff in the letter obtained by Forbes.
Instead, Wiz will pursue a $1 billion in annual recurring revenue target ahead of an eventual IPO, the cofounder of the New York-based and Tel Aviv-founded cloud security provider explained.
Wiz declined to comment through a spokesperson.
In the note, which was sent to about 1,200 Wiz employees globally, according to a source with knowledge, Rappaport claimed that it had been Wiz’s decision — not Google’s — to walk away from the deal. “Saying no to such humbling offers is tough, but with our exceptional team, I feel confident in making that choice.”
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
New of Google’s “advanced talks” with Wiz was previously reported by The Wall Street Journal on July 14, setting off frenzied speculation about what might have been the tech giant’s largest-ever acquisition.
Wiz most recently raised $1 billion in funds at a $12 billion valuation, the company announced in May, meaning the rumored sale price represented a 92% markup. Notable investors in Wiz include Cyberstarts, Index Ventures, Sequoia, Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and more recently Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital.
Founded in January 2020 by Rappaport and cofounders Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik and Ami Luttwak, Wiz quickly burst onto the cybersecurity scene with software for protecting companies’ information in the cloud. Even among a number of security unicorns, Wiz stood out for its fast revenue growth, rapacious appetite for funding and aggressive sales tactics — a breakneck approach to company-building that helped place it No. 15 on the Cloud 100 list, and which Forbes chronicled in a cover profile in May 2023.
More recently, Wiz has been acquisitive itself. The startup acquired another Israel-founded security company, Gem Security, for a reported $350 million in April. It later made a run at buying Lacework, once valued at $8.3 billion for a reported offer of up to $200 million.
The company has a history of attempting audacious market moves. In August 2023, Wiz approached bankers about acquiring SentinelOne, a public company carrying a market cap of $4.9 billion at the time, per a Bloomberg report at the time. Those talks led SentinelOne CEO Tomer Weingarten to later call Wiz a “nice little startup.”
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