Google’s $32 billion deal for Wiz gets antitrust review, Bloomberg News reports

(Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department antitrust enforcers are reviewing whether Google’s planned acquisition of cybersecurity company Wiz would illegally limit competition in the marketplace, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The deal, valued at about $32 billion, would be Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s largest acquisition. It will integrate Wiz into Google’s cloud unit, enhancing the company’s cybersecurity solutions to help businesses mitigate critical risks.

Google and the DOJ declined to comment, while Wiz did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Reuters reported in March that the deal accelerated after President Donald Trump was sworn into office, with the prospect of a friendlier antitrust review under his administration.

Wiz executives were wary after seeing Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE)’s attempted $20 billion takeover of Figma fall apart due to antitrust scrutiny in late 2023, as reported by Reuters.

Google had agreed to pay Wiz a fee of more than $3.2 billion if the deal doesn’t close.

Trump’s appointments of Andrew Ferguson to chair the FTC and Gail Slater to helm antitrust reviews at the DOJ also gave executives at both companies more confidence in a smoother regulatory review, Reuters had reported.

The news comes at a time when the tech giant Google is also battling DOJ lawsuits over its domination of online search and ad technology.

A U.S. Judge found in April that Google is liable for "willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power" in markets for publisher ad servers and the market for ad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers.

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