Google buys looker
CRN Australia

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian has announced that the American tech giant will be buying Looker for $2.6 billion in cash. This will be Kurian's first major acquisition after joining as the CEO of Google Cloud in November 2018.

Looker is an American data exploration and business intelligence platform founded in 2012, employing about 800 people. The company had raised about $281 million through ventures and had a market value of $1.6 billion in 2018.

It will be bought by Google as a part of its cloud computing division. Google has been doubling the analytics division with multiple data analysis companies as he aims at filling up the gaps in the company's analysis and intelligence unit.

Google buys looker
TechCrunch

According to Reuters, Kurian explained that Looker and Google Cloud had similar cultures and share more than 350 customers, including Blue Apron Holdings Inc and Hearst Communications Inc. This, according to him, was the reason behind his interest in the company.

Looker will be defining calculations related to revenue and high-valued customers. Its major aim would be a visualisation of product trends graphically without complicated scripts. According to some analysts, Google made the best choice in buying the software as it is one among the best business intelligence tools developed in the cloud era. It would also help in bringing about new features to the cloud storage, explained Kurian.

Kurian specified in a statement that he did not expect the deal to face antitrust within the valued customers of Looker. He claimed that Google was buying the software and has no intention of overlooking the data of any inter-related companies. He said that he gives a free hand to allow the software to connect to Amazon.com and other competing cloud units.

Some additional view-points

  • There have been fluctuations in the share prices of Looker's competitors after Google announced to buy it. Competitors like Tableau have a share price drop of 3.7 per cent, Domo fell by 0.4 per cent, and Microsoft has a narrow rise in its stock price.
  • Thomas Kurian, the former president of Product Development at Oracle, was named as the new CEO of Google cloud in November 2018. Investing in Looker is his first big initiative after joining the company.
  • Microsoft and Amazon had also been in talks to acquire looker for the cloud computing activity before Google.