Google secures EU approval for $32b Wiz deal

Google has received unconditional EU antitrust approval for its US$32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Wiz, marking its largest deal to date.

The European Commission said the deal would not raise competition concerns, as Google trails behind Amazon and Microsoft in cloud infrastructure market share.

Customers will continue to have credible alternatives.

EU regulators also noted that any data Google acquires through the deal is not commercially sensitive and can be accessed by other security software companies.

The approval follows increased regulatory scrutiny of tech mergers amid concerns over market dominance and reduced competition.

🔗 Source: Reuters

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Why Google paid a historic price for a five-year-old startup

The $32 billion price tags more than the product. It buys Wiz’s tailwinds plus confidence from large companies.
Wiz launched in 2020 and grew at a rare pace, hitting $100 million in recurring revenue within 18 months 1.
Before the agreement, more than half of Fortune 100 companies used Wiz. That gives Google a quick, believable way into the biggest enterprise accounts 1.
The purchase strengthens Google’s push into Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP), a category of tools that secures cloud applications across development and production. This market could reach $12.9 billion by 2030 2.

The acquisition’s biggest risk is alienating its non-Google customers

The outcome depends on whether Google keeps Wiz neutral across clouds. EU regulators also concluded the deal would not raise competition concerns in cloud infrastructure.
A large share of Wiz’s top accounts run on rival platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure 3.
Those customers may worry that Google will steer engineering time toward Google Cloud, which could slow improvements or weaken support on competing systems 3.
If trust slips, rivals like Palo Alto Networks could win over unhappy buyers. That would undercut Google’s plan to use Wiz as a “Trojan horse” to gain cloud market share 1.