Google reportedly in talks to buy infosec outfit Wiz for $23B

Ask any techie to name who leads the market for OSes, databases, networks or ERP and the answers are clear: Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, and SAP. Security? That's a tougher question. But Google appears to be attempting a play for the crown, as it is reportedly poised to acquire infosec upstart Wiz. Wiz was founded in just 2020 …

[DS999]

Like I always say

Large acquisitions are just burning cash. Maybe 5% of acquisitions over $10 billion have worked out well for shareholders, and at least half have cost them a lot.

This is even worse, because this is a company that was founded in 2020. There's no way any 4 year old business - I don't care WHAT it does - is worth remotely close to what Google is putting up. If I was a shareholder of theirs I would pitch a fit. But I'm not so I'll just laugh and be happy that Apple has avoided all that stupidity despite the ridiculous ideas that come up every few years that they should buy Netflix or buy Disney or buy Sun or whatever.

[Peter-Waterman1]

Re: Like I always say

Expert.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: Like I always say

Someone at G owns enough shares of Wiz, and now they want a payday.

[Like a badger]

Re: Like I always say

Quite remarkable that Google think that splurging billions is going to make them a name in security. If there's one corporation I don't trust with data, it's Google.

[Rahbut]

Re: Like I always say

I'm kind of conflicted on this - they _have_ to be secure, because their entire business seems to revolve around holding lots of data against an individual. The second they mess up, will be the second the lose it all. So, paradoxically, I trust them with my data - I just wish they didn't have so much of it.

[DS999]

Re: Like I always say

This acquisition is about cloud security, so I think it is about helping secure data their corporate customers have in Google's cloud. That they care about, because unlike consumers those corporate customers are paying customers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Like I always say

Well, Google GCP and the services that run on it *are* pretty good when it comes to security after being badly hacked back in 2012 or so (other bits like Android are a different topic, but they might as well be completely separate businesses).

Comparing this with OMIGOD, ChaosDB and all the other really stupid security fuck-ups we've seen with Microsoft's Azure and the stuff that runs on top of it, it's a difference like day and night (although I'm not implying Microsoft does anything wrong here, seeing how businesses, consumers and even governments still trip over themselves buying into Microsoft's wobbly products and services).

[Anonymous Coward]

:D

"Takes a Wiz"

"Throne"

"vacant"

[TheMaskedMan]

Re: :D

Excellent! Came here to see if anyone had done "takes a Wiz" yet - the unfortunate name is just begging for double intenders, as Nanny Ogg might say - but I didn't notice Throne and Vacant. My only excuse is that I haven't had my coffee yet.

[CowHorseFrog]

So G like their other big mates only pay a few thousand for finding vuls, so why would they pay billions for Wiz ?

Why would they pay billions per vuln when they normally only pay thousands ?

Someone at G must own part of Wiz and they now want a payday.

[NohSpam]

by revenue, criticality, virtue, resilience or what?

It's trite to say Microsoft leads OSs in world where Linux rules from supercomputers to IoT endpoints and IBM’s Z/OS just keeps the world working, more reliably, faster and cheaper than all that distributed nonsense Microsoft peddles!

[Anonymous Coward]

Oxymoron?

The terms Google and security just don't sound right together. I can see Google using expertise from Wiz in two ways:

1) To make their cloud service as hard to break into as possible - potentially being able to claim it's the most secure against external attack; and

2) To find new ways to scan user data without anyone else knowing.

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: Oxymoron?

I tend to think that your reason 2) is the more likely.

Google software is banned here. Guess why?

[Anonymous Coward]

"The security industry"

and Google should never be spoken in the same sentence.

Google who sucks the life out of us in the name of ad slinging now wants in on the people who want to stop us blocking the hell out of Google?

FSCK Google.

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems a bit weird

I quite like wiz. Its quite good but I don't think Google developing their own version would be particularly hard.

Seems a lot of money to buy something that could be created internally. Its only some fairly basic logic overlayed onto the various cloud platform API's.

Its not like Google don't have armies of coders...

[Bebu]

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain"

The Wiz and the theatricals of security thespians immediately bring to mind his futile plea to Dorothy.

Die Scheiße Fabrik adding more ordure to their muck heap?

[funkenstein]

Missing the point?

1. Google is buying Wiz in order to resell it as "Google Scanner for Enterprise" or similar, to feed into Chronicle.

2. It looks to me like Google security products are trying for parity with Microsoft - e.g. Microsoft Sentinel == Chronicle; Microsoft Threat Intel Centre (MSTIC) == Mandiant; Defender for Vulnerabilities (and other native capabilities) == Wiz; Who knows what EDR they'll buy, but I reckon that's the play - Cloud SIEM/SOAR to keep Google Workplace customers not needing to go elsewhwere.

3. The "top player in security" vendor space definitely has a big spot for Microsoft in it. To be clear, I'm not saying they are secure, just that they have good security products.

People thinking Google are buying Wiz for their own enterprise needs are at least 75% off. They might also become an internal customer of the integrated service, but that's not what's this is about.