Google’s parent company Alphabet announced on Thursday, June 6, that it is buying data analytics company Looker for US$2.6 billion, according to a report from Reuters.
The acquisition will be the first under new Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian. The company’s cloud computing sector trails Amazon’s and Microsoft’s when it comes to revenue and methods. However, analysts say Google Cloud’s BigQuery, which handles large datasets, is an attractive system in terms of customer attraction.
Kurian said focusing on analytics makes sense, as he aims to close some gaps in the cloud unit. He also said that Looker and Google Cloud are similar in a cultural sense. They share some customers as well, like Blue Apron and Hearst Communications.
“When we looked at how do we broaden our portfolio, (data and analytics) is a segment where we have strength,” Kurian said. Looker is “complementary and completes our analytics foundation.”
Looker was founded in Santa Cruz, California in 2012. It has about 800 employees and has raised US$281 million in venture capital. Last year, it was valued at US$1.6 billion.
Kurian’s plan for the cloud unit is to focus on specialized software rather than general tools. Looker’s software enables organizations to define calculations for important customers for things like revenue, and then show trends in the data without the need for complicated scripts. It can be compared to products like Tableau and Power BI by Microsoft.
Looker is see
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