Google deal for Wiz could pressure cloud vendors in near-term, says Jefferies

After Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) announced an agreement to buy cloud security provider Wiz for $32B in cash, Jefferies said a deal of this size “emphasizes the mission criticality of Cyber” and should support valuations broadly. However, in the near-term, it could pressure cloud vendors such as Palo Alto Networks (PANW), SentinelOne (S) and CrowdStrike (CRWD) as Google uses its scale to push pricing and penetrate the market. Long-term, this should benefit pure play vendors as “the Switzerland effect is appreciated by customers who may not trust” Google to guard Amazon’s (AMZN) AWS and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Azure, the analyst added. The firm adds that it sees no changes to Check Point’s (CHKP) partnership with Wiz.