Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

Why Wiz Walked Away: Inside the Billion-Dollar Acquisition Drama

10 Aug 2024 · 1 min

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0:56

Jason M. Lemkin breaks down why Wiz rejected a roughly $22 billion acquisition offer. The deal moved fast, with counteroffers within 48 hours, but the founders chose the IPO path instead, betting they could capture more upside and avoid the risks that come with a massive transaction.

Questions this video answers

Thomas Graham.

About $10 billion.

Approximately $22–23 billion.

About 48 hours; the overall episode took about a week-and-a-half.

Chapters

So do you believe that Whiz walked away because they did not think that it would go through because they felt that's the number one. I think the offer was real, like in the press. I think Thomas Graham called them up. I think they had a. He probably offered 10 billion. There was a quick back and forth and it quickly became 2x the last round. Right? I mean, literally, when I sold my first startup, the acquirer went, got our Certificate of Incorporation, Delaware and offered us 3x last round. Before we even met. He's like, this is the clearing price, three extra last round. So they offered it before the first meeting. Okay. So that took like 48 hours because you have to offer less or you look like he's. He's not the CEO of Google, he's just running Google Cloud. They offer 22 bill, 23 billion. And it's interesting, they talk about it with the team and then this was over in a week and a half. I think because it wasn't worth the risk. I don't think it was worth the risk. I don't think was worth the risk. Not for founders that are already wanted to go IPO with the growth they've had and guys that have already made eight figures. It wasn't worth the risk. I think it was a quick no. I think it was actually a quick no is what I think happened.