Google's $2.6 billion Looker acquisition would give the company access to an up-and-coming talent hotbed.
Santa Cruz is one of the few San Francisco Bay Area locations where Google doesn't have a significant presence.Santa Cruz beach boardwalk amusement park. Santa Cruz, California.With a $2.6 billion proposal to buy Looker, Google will be getting more than just data analytics. It's the first major acquisition under Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, who is looking to make his mark six months into the job. But Google is not only gaining a new component for its cloud business. It's also also getting easier access to tech talent on a remote edge of Silicon Valley, and a location in one of the few San Francisco Bay Area locations where it has no presence: Santa Cruz.
"Once we get regulatory approvals, we have a lot of ideas on how to further integrate the products and also to use Google Cloud's sales team in concert with Frank's team," Kurian said in a call with press last week, referring to Looker CEO Frank Bien. Bien and his roughly 600 employees will report directly to Kurian, he added.Santa Cruz is a beach town of about 65,000 in Northern California.