The US Department of Justice’s competition authorities are investigating whether Google’s proposed acquisition of cybersecurity company Wiz could illegally restrict competition in the market.
This is according to Bloomberg News, based on information from insiders. The acquisition, valued at approximately $32 billion, would be the largest ever for Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Wiz would be integrated into Google’s cloud division, strengthening the company’s cybersecurity solutions to better protect organizations from critical risks.
Google and the Department of Justice declined to comment, and Wiz did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
According to an earlier Reuters report, the deal gained momentum after President Donald Trump took office, as a more lenient competition review was expected under his administration.
Wiz executives had been wary for some time after Adobe’s failed attempt to acquire Figma for $20 billion. That deal fell through at the end of 2023 under pressure from competition authorities.
Google had agreed to pay Wiz more than $3.2 billion if the takeover did not go through.
Confidence in approval after Trump appointments
Trump’s appointments of Andrew Ferguson as chairman of the FTC and Gail Slater as head of the competition division at the Department of Justice gave the companies more confidence that the review would go smoothly, according to Reuters.
At the same time, Google is facing lawsuits from the Department of Justice over its dominant position in the online search and advertising technology markets.
In April, a US judge ruled that Google is responsible for deliberately obtaining and maintaining monopoly power in the markets for advertising servers for publishers and advertising exchanges that connect buyers and sellers.