EC Gives Approval for Google's $32 Billion Takeover of Wiz

Google received unconditional antitrust approval from the European Commission for its $32 billion deal to buy Israeli cybersecurity player Wiz. The Ec concluded that the acquisition does not raise any competition concerns.

The EC stated that Google, which struck a deal last March to buy Wiz after talks fell through the prior year, faces strong competition in the cloud computing and cybersecurity sectors from rivals Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. “Google stands behind Amazon and Microsoft in terms of market shares in cloud infrastructure, and our assessment confirmed that customers will continue to have credible alternatives and the ability to switch providers,” stated EC EVP Teresa Ribera.

Based on its investigation, the EC found there are several credible competitors that customers could switch to if Google bundled Wiz’s multi-cloud security platform with its existing products, or in case Wiz’s platform no longer worked with clouds other than hyperscalers. The EC also determined that Google will not gain access to commercially sensitive data from rival cloud providers through Wiz.