The Competition Commission of South Africa has approved the proposed transaction whereby Google intends to acquire Wiz, without conditions.
The primary acquiring firm is Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., a publicly traded company listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange and headquartered in California, United States of America (USA). Alphabet Inc. controls several firms across multiple jurisdictions, and in South Africa, Google controls five companies.
✔️ Google operates globally in various technology markets, including internet search, digital advertising, mobile operating systems, web browsers and cloud computing. Relevant to this transaction is Google Cloud Platform (“GCP”), which supplies public cloud infrastructure services in South Africa. GCP also provides both cloud-specific and broader cybersecurity features. Google’s cloud security services are primarily focused on single-cloud deployments, whereas firms such as Wiz provide cloud-agnostic solutions across multiple cloud environments. Google’s security offering is largely reactive, focusing on detecting, investigating and responding to cyber incidents after they occur.
✔️ Wiz, a USA incorporated company headquartered in New York. Wiz’s shares are widely held. Wiz provides cloud security solutions designed to help organisations identify and address security risks across public cloud platforms, hybrid environments and on-premises infrastructure. Its core offering is a multicloud CloudNative Application Protection Platform, which secures workloads across several cloud service providers, including GCP, AWS and Azure. 5
“The Commission is of the view that the proposed transaction is unlikely to substantially lessen or prevent competition in any relevant market. The proposed transaction does not raise significant public interest concerns,”
states the Commission’s press release.
