‘Saying no to such humbling offers is tough’: Startup rejects Rs. 200000 crore offer from Google, here’s why

Wiz, a cybersecurity startup, has turned down Google’s massive acquisition offer after reaching advanced negotiations. For those who are unaware, Google’s parent company Alphabet offered a massive amount of $23 billion (around Rs. 2 lakh crore) to acquire Wiz. The deal could have been Google’s biggest ever acquisition. As per a report by CNBC, Wiz’s co-founder Assaf Rappaport sent an internal memo to the staff, revealing the reason for denying the offer.

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Why Wiz turned down Google’s offer

According to an internal memo seen by CNBC, Wiz co-founder Assaf Rappaport said the company is interested in pursuing an initial public offering. “Saying no to such humbling offers is tough,” Rappaport wrote in a memo to employees. The memo further reveals that Wiz will now be focusing on the goal it had set before Google’s offer. The company aims to achieve $1 billion in annual recurring revenue along with the IPO. It is worth noting that neither of the companies have officially commented anything about the deal.

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Why is Google interested in Wiz

Over the years, Wiz emerged as a leader in cloud-based cybersecurity solutions. Founded in Israel, the company is now headquartered in New York with some massive clients on board. It currently has around 40% of the Fortune 100 companies. After the latest $1 billion (Rs.8,353 crore) funding round, the company touched a valuation of $12 billion (Rs.1,00,251 crore).

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Wiz currently employs around 900 people across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Israel. It has prominent clients including Morgan Stanley and DocuSign. It also has Microsoft and Amazon as partners. Google reportedly started to contemplate such a massive acquisition shortly after it decided against buyout of software company HubSpot. The deal would have helped Google to expand its footprint in cloud-based services and market itself competitively in the evolving digital security landscape.

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