① Google acquires cybersecurity The Wiz deal has crossed a key hurdle: the U.S. Department of Justice will conclude its antitrust investigation into the acquisition. ② In March of this year, Google announced it would acquire Wiz in an all-cash deal worth $32 billion. After the transaction concludes, Wiz will be integrated into Google Cloud Services.
Google's acquisition of cybersecurity company Wiz has crossed a key hurdle: the U.S. Department of Justice will conclude its antitrust investigation into the acquisition.
In March of this year, Google announced its acquisition of Wiz in an all-cash deal worth $32 billion. Upon completion of the transaction, Wiz will be integrated into Google Cloud Services. This is the largest acquisition in Google's history.
However, according to media reports in June, the U.S. Department of Justice was conducting an antitrust investigation into the deal, with regulators concerned that it could illegally restrict market competition. However, according to information on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website, the Department of Justice decided to terminate its review on October 24 under a so-called "early termination" procedure.
Wiz CEO Assaf Rappaport confirmed at an event on Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Justice has completed its review, but the deal is still under evaluation by other antitrust regulators.
When a U.S. antitrust agency approves an "early termination" of a review, it means that the review no longer constitutes an obstacle to the merger.
However, the timing is quite unusual because the FTC had previously stated that it would not approve any early termination proceedings during the US government shutdown. The FTC is responsible for its own and the Department of Justice's related processes.
Last Friday, the FTC also approved the early termination of Pfizer's contract. This is one of the company's acquisitions. Although Google's acquisition of Wiz was announced earlier, its official announcement came later than Pfizer 's deal.
It's worth noting that back in July of last year, Google offered to acquire Wiz for $23 billion, but Wiz rejected the offer at the time, partly due to regulatory concerns.
With artificial intelligence The rise of the (AI) craze and cloud computing This sector is becoming a fiercely contested arena for tech giants. Despite Amazon's efforts... AWS remains in the lead, but Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are catching up rapidly.
Google released strong third-quarter earnings last week, with cloud revenue reaching $15.2 billion, a 34% year-over-year increase, exceeding analysts' expectations.
(Article source: CLS)
