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In what many venture investors have described as a sluggish M&A market, this week brings about what would be the largest acquisition of a private, venture-backed company ever — if it goes through.

The planned $32 billion acquisition of cloud security unicorn by parent doesn’t come as a shock to many who watch cybersecurity closely. It was just last summer when news broke Alphabet was close to acquiring Wiz for approximately $23 billion, as first in .

The reasoning for the deal now is roughly the same — Google is tired of being stuck in third place when it comes to cloud services — behind and — and Wiz’s software helps companies secure their cloud applications by identifying and prioritizing threats, which could mean possible higher security revenue for the search giant.

As always these days, there’s also an artificial intelligence angle, as Wiz’s offerings also would help keep enterprise systems clean in the advent of AI.

Getting it done

However, reports last summer indicated the deal fell through because of Wiz’s intent to stay independent, as well as concerns about possible regulatory challenges in a dealmaking environment that many saw as unfriendly.

However, all of that comes with some important caveats. While the change in administration could bring less regulation to the market, there is still concern about how friendly the new administration — and the economy it creates — will be to both tech and M&A.

While most believe the election of President will change that environment, that remains to be seen.

The new head of the ’s antitrust efforts, Gail Slater, is a frequent critic of large technology companies — and Google certainly falls into that category.

Google also is dealing with its own regulatory issues, as just last year a federal judge ruled Google illegally maintained a monopoly in search and advertising markets and the Big Tech giant is facing the possibility of being broken up.

Cyber M&A

None of that means the deal won’t go through, just to point out it’s a far from certain thing (we all remember ’s ill-fated $20 billion plan to buy design platform ).

If it does go through, it could be a boon for cyber dealmaking. The largest deal so far the industry has witnessed involving a VC-backed company was $6.5 billion stock deal for Bellevue, Washington-based way back in 2021.

After a down 2023, which saw only 71 M&A deals involving VC-backed cyber firms, last year saw a big uptick to 119, per SA¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ .

This year may well top that, as so far there have been 33 such deals.

Winners

The proposed purchase price also would suggest many VC firms would be happy to see this deal go through. It was just last May when Wiz locked up a $1 billion round at a $12 billion valuation.

That round was co-led by , and , with participation from , and existing investors , , , , 1Ìý²¹²Ô»å .

All of those firms seemingly would make a nice profit after watching Wiz’s value jump 167% in less than a year — as would those who invested in earlier rounds.

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Related reading:

• With Google’s $32B Bid For Wiz, Big Exits Are Finally Picking Up
• Google In Talks To Buy Cyber Startup Wiz For $23B — Report
• Cloud Security Firm Wiz Raises $1B At $12B Valuation
• °¿°ì³Ù²¹â€™s $6.5B Deal For Auth0 Latest Sign Of Growing Appetite For ID Security

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