Google wants to buy cloud software company Apigee
Google has announced that it will acquire the cloud software company Apigee Corp in a move that will likely help boost its own cloud offerings.
The deal is valued at around $625 million and Google has agreed to pay Apigee shareholders $17.40 for each share of the company's stock which amounts to a 6.5 percent premium on its closing price the day before the announcement.
Apigee, which is based out of San Jose, creates software that aids companies' digital services in interacting with the apps used by both customers and partners. The company specializes in managing application programming interfaces (APIs) and by acquiring it Google may be able to help close the gap that has developed between it and its biggest competitors in the growing corporate cloud computing business.
Diane Greene, who is in charge of Google's cloud computing division, sees the service that Apigee provides as critical for any business transitioning to the cloud. In an interview she praised the company's work with APIs, saying: "They are a leader in this application programming interface area".
In April of last year, Apigee went public with its stock trading at $17 per share. Despite being quite a new company, it already has an impressive customer base with AT&T, Burberry Group Plc, Vodafone Group Plc and the World Bank all using its services.
Greene noted that the two companies already share a number of clients, saying: "Our customer lists are extremely complimentary. There's some overlap and some areas where we are going to be able to help each other once (the deal) closes".
Apigee's high-profile clients may be able to give Google a leg up on its competition that have gained momentum on the company in recent years.
However, this acquisition may help it compete against the likes of Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services in the enterprise cloud market.
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