Google To Acquire Looker In $2.6B Blockbuster Business Analytics Deal

Google will add Looker's business intelligence platform, including its sales and marketing analytical applications, to the Google Cloud Platform lineup.

Google has struck a deal to acquire business analytics software developer Looker for $2.6 billion in a blockbuster move to expand the business intelligence offerings of Google Cloud.

Looker, one of the more prominent startups in the business analytics space, develops a platform with business intelligence, data applications and embedded analytics capabilities. The company's platform runs purpose-built applications for marketing and web analytics and the company recently added a sales analytics application to its product portfolio.

Google Cloud already includes a number of big data management and analytics services including the company's BigQuery cloud data warehouse service that competes with Snowflake Computing and Amazon Web Services' Redshift.

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Google, in a statement, said the addition of Looker to Google Cloud will "provide customers with a more comprehensive analytics solution—from ingesting data to gain insights, to embedded analytics and visualizations—enabling enterprises to leverage the power of analytics, machine learning and AI."

Privately held Looker, based in Santa Cruz, Calif., had raised a total of $280.5 million in financing, including $103 million in Series E financing in December 2018.

"The combination of Google Cloud and Looker will enable customers to harness data in new ways to drive their digital transformation," said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud, in a statement. "We remain committed to our multi-cloud strategy and will retain and expand Looker's capabilities to analyze data across Clouds."

"The combination of Looker and Google Cloud advances our mission that we undertook from the beginning—to empower humans through the smarter use of data,” said Frank Bien, CEO of Looker, in the statement. "Now, we'll have greater reach, more resources, and the brightest minds in both Analytics and Cloud Infrastructure working together to build an exciting path forward for our customers and partners. Together, we are reinventing what it means to solve business problems with data at an entirely different scale and value point."

Google expects to complete the $2.6 billion all-cash acquisition of Looker later this year, pending regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.