March 18 - Alphabet (GOOG, Financial) is again in talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz for around $30 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported that a deal could materialize soon, as Alphabet and Wiz representatives have yet to comment on the matter.
This marks the latest round of takeover discussions between the tech giant and the New York-based startup. In July, Wiz rejected a bid of up to $23 billion from Alphabet, opting to pursue an initial public offering instead. That decision was seen as a setback for Alphabet, which is striving to close the gap with Microsoft (MSFT, Financial) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN, Financial). in the highly competitive cloud services arena.
That brings Alphabet's cybersecurity portfolio to seven companies following a series of strategic acquisitions. Integrating with cloud storage providers that include Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, security scanner Wiz scans stored data for security vulnerabilities, part of Alphabet's push for the cloud that hopes to make it more competitive. The analysts consider the move as a deliberate effort to expand market share.
