$2 billion to flow to Israeli employees from Wiz, CyberArk, and Armis deals
The cyber acquisitions are expected to deliver historic equity payouts before taxes in 2026.
If 2025 was an extraordinary year for Israeli tech, 2026 promises to be no less remarkable, even if almost nothing else happens except for three major events: the completion of the giant acquisitions of the Israeli cyber companies Wiz, CyberArk, and Armis.
The most complex of these deals in terms of regulatory approvals was Wiz. About a month ago, the company’s CEO, Assaf Rappaport, announced that the long-awaited approval from U.S. antitrust authorities had been received, paving the way for completion, which is expected in the first half of 2026. At that time, Wiz will officially become part of Google, which will transfer a historically record $32 billion.
The CyberArk-Palo Alto deal, which faces fewer regulatory hurdles because the two companies do not overlap, is also expected to close in the first half of the year, resulting in a $25 billion cash and stock payment. The Armis-ServiceNow deal is likely to be completed even earlier, as Armis is a relatively small private company compared with the American software giant, which has not previously operated in the cyber sector.
Once these deals are finalized, billions of shekels will flow directly into the accounts of employees in Israel. In the case of Wiz, when the sale to Google was announced, the companies indicated that $1.5 billion would be allocated for employee retention. These funds will be distributed among fewer than 2,000 employees, roughly half of whom are in Israel. In other words, the Wiz deal alone will bring about NIS 2.5 billion to Israeli employees, likely more, as the company’s most senior staff remain in Israel, the place where the company was founded.
For CyberArk, as a public company, relatively precise information is available. According to the company’s report at the end of September 2025, CyberArk has 400,000 options and 2.85 million blocked shares, with an average exercise price of $166 per share. The Palo Alto acquisition values the company at $486 per share in cash. This translates to roughly $1.5 billion in equity compensation for the company’s 3,200 employees. About 1,200 of these employees are in Israel, each expected to receive an average of approximately $500,000, totaling roughly NIS 2 billion.
The Armis deal, the smallest of the three, also allocates around $500 million for employee retention. Armis employs 950 people, slightly more than half of whom are in Israel. Here too, the average employee is expected to receive approximately $500,000, adding another NIS 1 billion to Israel’s accounts.
Taken together, even before a single new deal is signed or any stock rises, employees in the local high-tech sector are expected to receive an additional NIS 6 billion ($1.9B) before taxes following the three major exits of 2025. Meanwhile, negotiations are already underway for several other significant transactions, including the sale of Pagaya Global for $3.5-$4.5 billion, AI21 to Nvidia for $2-3 billion, the acquisition of cyber company Axonius by Cisco for $2 billion, and the sale of cyber startup Koi to Palo Alto for $400 million.
