Google to buy unified data platform Looker for $2.6 billion to strengthen Cloud analytics

Earlier today, Google announced plans to acquire unified data and analytics platform Looker for $2.6 billion in an all-cash transaction. Once the deal is complete later this year, Looker will join Google Cloud.

“Google Cloud is being used by many of the leading organizations in the world for analytics and decision-making. The combination of Google Cloud and Looker will enable customers to harness data in new ways to drive their digital transformation,” said Thomas Kurian, chief executive officer of Google Cloud. “We remain committed to our multi-cloud strategy and will retain and expand Looker’s capabilities to analyze data across Clouds.”

Why we should care

As martech investments continue to grow and digital transformation catches on, the need for data and analytics is highlighted more than ever. However, one of the biggest analytics challenges digital marketers face continues to be the underlying martech infrastructure and pulling the different pieces together to create meaningful, actionable insights.

“The data analytics market is growing incredibly fast as companies look to leverage all of their data to make more informed decisions,” said Frank Gens, Senior Vice President & Chief Analyst, IDC. “Google Cloud is one of the leaders in the data warehouse market, and the addition of Looker will further strengthen their ability to serve the needs of enterprise customers while also advancing their commitment to multi-cloud.”

The addition of Looker to the Google Cloud ecosystem could afford users the ability to strengthen their analytics, which in turn should lead to better decision-making and improve digital execution.

More on the news

• Looker is a unified data platform that integrates data into the daily workflow of users and enables organizations to extract value from the data.
• The acquisition builds on an existing partnership between the two companies where they share more than 350 joint customers, including Buzzfeed, Hearst, King, Sunrun, WPP Essence and Yahoo!.