Alphabet in talks to buy Wiz

Google parent Alphabet Inc is in talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz Inc, according to a person familiar with the matter, reports Bloomberg.

A deal may be worth as much as $23 billion, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing nonpublic information. That would make it the tech giant’s largest acquisition to date. An agreement hasn’t been reached and talks could still end without one, the person said.

A representative for Alphabet didn’t respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Wiz declined to comment.Alphabet already owns the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, which it bought for $5.4 billion two years ago in its second-largest acquisition, topped only by its deal for Motorola Mobility Holdings LLC completed in 2012. An acquisition target as large as Wiz would be unusual for a big tech company like Alphabet and may draw even more scrutiny from antitrust regulators.

Google already faces several antitrust challenges, including a lawsuit by the US Justice Department accusing it of abusing its dominant position in online search and another one regarding its digital advertising tools.

The Wiz talks, which were previously reported by the Wall Street Journal, come on the heels of Alphabet shelving efforts to acquire customer relationship management company HubSpot Inc, which Bloomberg News reported last weekThe acquisition of Wiz could help Google catch up to Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc in an increasingly competitive cloud market.

Alphabet has been ramping up investment in its cloud customer business, including offering more generative artificial intelligence tools for clients. Though Google still lags behind Microsoft and Amazon in the market for cloud computing, the company reported that its cloud unit has been profitable in consecutive quarters, after years of the unit being a money-losing operation.