UPDATE 3-Google to buy analytics software firm Looker for $2.6 bln

Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Thursday it would buy Looker, a privately held big-data analytics company, for $2.6 billion in cash, in the first major acquisition for new Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian. Google’s cloud computing division is a distant third globally to Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp in terms of revenue from renting infrastructure and other computing tools to businesses. Kurian told Reuters in an interview that doubling down on analytics made sense as he looked to fill gaps in his unit.

Source: Yahoo.com