Apparently Israeli media is reporting that the price is so high that the government is requesting the founders will pay their taxes in USD and not Israeli Shekels in fear that such a large foreign exchange transaction will affect the exchange rate. ( Which is already unusually low and hurting exporters)
This would be the first time taxes are paid in a different currency in Israel history.
Pretty wild that it's such a large acquisition it can affect a nation's monetary policy.
There are multiple founders getting billions of dollars each. It's not so unreasonble to fear what could happen if daily trading volume suddenly had a significant increase from them collectively dumping billions of dollars onto the market on the same day to settle the tax bill.
The name “Calcalist” is indeed a play on “Economist” (it is not a proper Hebrew word, but fuses the Hebrew word for economy “calcala” with the English suffix for a professional work “ist”.
However, it is just an expanded version of Ynet’s business/economy section, and Ynet is probably the closest equivalent to USA Today or The Sun.
FYI, Wiz investor and current Wiz board member Gili Raanan, head of Israeli VC Cyberstarts, has been (credibly) accused of paying bribes to major CISOs for buying software from their portfolio companies like Wiz.
This is well known in cybersecurity circles. I mentioned here[1] a couple years back that I know CISOs who've had to clean up big messes because their predecessor was on the Cyberstarts payroll, but on the bright side I also know a couple of those predecessors who were fired for it.
Cyberstarts is the most blatant offender, but to be fair, VC has turned into the next rung on the career ladder for CIOs/CISOs, whose role is otherwise generally terminal (unlike e.g. COO or CMO). So a lot of deals get done now just on giving CISOs a path into VC. It's more subtle than Gili's way, and just as effective.
About 20 years ago I quite liked the idea of becoming a CISO - the CIO I worked for at the time talked me out of it - saying that the role would largely involve being ignored then, when something inevitably did go wrong, you'd get sacked.
Not a lawyer but this looks like a grey area and since it's public it can be assumed everyone is trying to do it.
I worked for F500 and one of the VPs was pushing some IT vendor solution that didn't really fit, after so much implementation pains and half working product release the said VP left the company... To become a board member of that IT vendor.
It's almost certainly not legal (it could probably be tried as fraud), and it definitely is a breach of contract for the CISO. I'm not claiming it happened, I have no idea, just commenting on the legality of the claimed acts.
Interesting fact regarding the sale. Because the founders are about to receive $2.4B US, Israeli tax authorities got involved, and the tax on the sale as an exception will be paid in US dollars directly without converting to shekels due to concerns it might crash the US/NIS exchange rate (with $US already historically low).
The interesting part is that Wiz built its success largely on being cloud-agnostic. If Google keeps it that way, it becomes a strategic window into AWS and Azure workloads.
If they don’t, they risk destroying the very advantage that made Wiz valuable in the first place.
> Two security executives told Forbes they rejected overtures from Raanan’s team after hearing about the firm’s “menu” of compensation. “I was completely aghast. It was against my principles,” one said.
Readit News
This would be the first time taxes are paid in a different currency in Israel history.
Pretty wild that it's such a large acquisition it can affect a nation's monetary policy.
There are multiple founders getting billions of dollars each. It's not so unreasonble to fear what could happen if daily trading volume suddenly had a significant increase from them collectively dumping billions of dollars onto the market on the same day to settle the tax bill.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hjggcekq11g
However, it is just an expanded version of Ynet’s business/economy section, and Ynet is probably the closest equivalent to USA Today or The Sun.
Calcalist did a deep investigation into it: https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/b1a1jn00hc
Cyberstarts is the most blatant offender, but to be fair, VC has turned into the next rung on the career ladder for CIOs/CISOs, whose role is otherwise generally terminal (unlike e.g. COO or CMO). So a lot of deals get done now just on giving CISOs a path into VC. It's more subtle than Gili's way, and just as effective.
1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40487846
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If they don’t, they risk destroying the very advantage that made Wiz valuable in the first place.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/iainmartin/2024/10/28/this-vc-b...
> Two security executives told Forbes they rejected overtures from Raanan’s team after hearing about the firm’s “menu” of compensation. “I was completely aghast. It was against my principles,” one said.
https://jemima.design.blog/2021/02/08/generic-tech-company-a...
everything has a price.