Google Acquisition Of Looker Data Sciences Approved

Alphabet-owned Google has confirmed that it has completed its acquisition of American business intelligence software and big data analytics provider Looker Data Sciences.

Google had announced the $2.6 billion acquisition of Santa Cruz, California-based Looker back in June 2019, but the deal has been subjected to regulatory approval in a number of countries.

The acquisition was completed after it was cleared by the UK’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

Looker acquisition

According to Reuters, the CMA said its probe found the deal would not adversely impact quality of service or competition in the market for data analytics tools and software.

The CMA added that the deal was unlikely to lead to increased prices or lower quality as the two are not considered close competitors by businesses who use business intelligence tools as they can choose from other providers including Microsoft, Oracle, Tableau, SAP and IBM.

News that Google has completed the acquisition was revealed a blog post by Google cloud business CEO Thomas Kurian.

“I’m pleased to announce that Google has completed its acquisition of Looker,” he wrote. “Together, we’re excited to offer customers a comprehensive analytics solution that integrates and visualizes insights at every layer of their business.”

“Looker will strengthen Google Cloud’s analytics and data warehouse capabilities, including BigQuery, enabling our customers to address some of their toughest business challenges, faster – all while maintaining complete control of their data,” wrote Kurian.

The Looker acquisition had also been approved by the US Department of Justice and the Austrian Federal Competition Authority.

Cloud boss

Kurian joined Google Cloud in November 2018, succeeding former chief Diane Greene, as Google sought to enlarge its share of the cloud infrastructure market against rivals including Amazon and Microsoft.

Google Cloud expanded its security portfolio in 2019 with the purchase of Chronicle, a start-up developed under Google parent Alphabet’s X experimental technologies division.

Also in 2019, Google Cloud purchased buy storage start-up Elastifile.

How well do you know the cloud? Try our quiz!