Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport
GUERIN BLASK FOR FORBES
The cybersecurity company, recently valued at $12 billion, will as an alternative seek an IPO, CEO Assaf Rappaport said in a letter that was made available Forbes.
Talks between Google and cybersecurity unicorn Wiz have failed, in response to a letter from Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport that was presented to company employees on Monday evening.
“I know the last week has been very stressful with all the talk about a possible acquisition. While we are flattered by the offers we have received, we have decided to continue on our path to building Wiz,” Rappaport wrote within the letter to Wiz employees, which now we have seen. Forbes.
Instead, Wiz will aim for an annual revenue goal of 1 billion dollars before a possible IPO, said the co-founder of the New York-based, Tel Aviv-founded cloud security provider.
Through a spokesman, Wiz declined to comment.
In the memo, which was sent to about 1,200 Wiz employees worldwide, in response to a source aware of the deal, Rappaport claimed it was Wiz’s decision – not Google’s – to back out of the deal. “It’s hard to say no to such humiliating offers, but with our exceptional team, I’m confident I can make this decision.”
Google didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
News of Google’s “advanced talks” with Wiz was previously reported from The Wall Street Journal on July 14, sparking wild speculation about what might have been the most important acquisition within the tech giant’s history.
Wiz recently raised $1 billion in capital and is valued at $12 billion. announced in May, meaning the rumored sale price represents a 92% premium. Wiz’s notable investors include Cyberstarts, Index Ventures, Sequoia, Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and more recently Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital.
Assaf Rapppaport on the quilt of Forbes in 2023.
Forbes
Founded in January 2020 by Rappaport and co-founders Yinon Costica, Roy Reznik, and Ami Luttwak, Wiz quickly burst onto the cybersecurity scene with software to guard enterprise information within the cloud. Even amongst a number of security unicorns, Wiz stood out for its rapid revenue growth, voracious appetite for funding, and aggressive sales tactics—a breakneck approach to company-building that earned it the No. 15 spot on the Cloud 100 list and the Forbes recorded in a title profile in May 2023.
More recently, Wiz has been on the takeover trail itself. The startup acquired one other Israeli-founded security company, Gem Security, for reported $350 million in April. The company later tried to purchase Lacework, which was once valued at $8.3 billion. reported Offer of as much as $200 million.
The company has a history of constructing daring market moves. In August 2023, Wiz approached bankers to accumulate SentinelOne, a publicly traded company with a market capitalization of $4.9 billion on the time, in response to a Bloomberg report at the moment. These discussions led SentinelOne CEO Tomer Weingarten to call later Wiz, a “nice little startup”.
