Google Adds Looker to Google Cloud in $2.6 Billion-Dollar Deal

Source: Looker

Google is set to acquire business intelligence and data analytics provider Looker in a deal worth a reported $2.6 billion. Looker will join Google Cloud as a result, providing customers a more comprehensive tool for ingesting and integrating data, as well as for embedded analytics and data visualization. The merger builds on an existing partnership between the two companies where they share more than 350 joint customers. The deal is expected to close later in the year.

Looker offers a BI and data analytics platform that is built on LookML, the company’s proprietary modeling language. The company’s embedded analytics functionality in Powered by Looker utilizes modern database technologies and an agile modeling layer that allow users to define data and control who can access it. Analytics can be deployed as an embedded iFrame or using Javascript. Organizations can use Looker’s full RESTful API or the schedule feature to deliver reports by email or webhook.

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian says the acquisition will extend their analytics offering by having the ability to define business metrics once in a consistent way across data sources, as well as provide users with analytics that delivers applications for use case-specific solutions such as sales analytics. Looker will also add embedded analytics to Google Cloud for the first time. Kurian also hints that more industry-specific tools could be on the horizon, whether for supply chain management, media analytics in entertainment, or healthcare.

In a post on the company’s blog, Looker CEO Frank Bien spoke to the news, saying: “The combination of Google Cloud’s BigQuery and associated data infrastructure and Looker’s platform for innovative data solutions will reinvent what it means to solve business problems with data at an entirely different scale and value point.” He adds: “Together, we’ll have better 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.”

This merger is the culmination of what we are seeing become the new norm in the data and analytics space, and comes on the heels of several other major acquisitions this year. In February, embedded analytics provider Logi Analytics acquired Jinfonet Software, immediately making it one of the top tools in the space. Qlik gobbled up data integration provider Attunity for $560 million shortly after, and Alteryx acquired ClearStory Data in April. Just last month, Sisense and Periscope Data decided to join forces, combining to create what we predict will be a force in the space for years to come.