Wiz, the $12 billion cloud security startup that was in acquisition talks with Google, has decided not to forward with the deal and will remain an independent company, according to an internal note sent to company’s 1,200 employees on Monday viewed by Fortune.
“While we are flattered by offers we have received, we have chosen to continue on our path to building Wiz,” CEO Assaf Rappaport wrote in the note. Rappaport said in the email that the company’s next target is to reach $1 billion in annual recurring revenue and to take the company public.
A source familiar with the matter told Fortune that Wiz’s investors were fully supportive of the decision. From Rappaport and Wiz’s end, the decision to walk away from a possible deal with the tech giant came down to a simple calculation: Wiz is already big enough on its own to gun for an IPO, which is the ultimate goal for the company, the source said.
Expected regulatory scrutiny of the deal, which would have represented the largest acquisition in Google’s history, may also have contributed to Wiz’s decision to go it alone.
“The market validation we have experienced following this news only reinforces our goal – creating a platform that both security and development teams love,” Rappaport wrote. “We are grateful for the faith our employees, investors, and customers have in us as we build the best cybersecurity company in the world.”
Speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference last week, Rappaport said that the cybersecurity industry was ripe for consolidation. Still, he noted that IPOs and acquisitions are merely “milestones” in a longer journey.
“That’s kind of the mindset that we always have, being private, being public, and a startup.”
The four-year-old startup, with offices in New York and Tel Aviv, Israel, raised a whopping $1 billion in venture funding earlier this year at a $12 billion valuation. The company had indicated at the time that it planned to use the capital to continue growing and to go on the hunt for acquisitions.
Wiz’s investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Thrive Capital, Index Ventures, Cyberstarts, Greylock, Greenoaks, Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Wellington Management.
Google did not yet responded to Fortune’s request for comment.