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Looker, a unified platform for business and data intelligence, is joining the Google Cloud. Google, Looker and Google's parent company, Alphabet, gave word of the $2.6 billion acquisition deal on Thursday.

Google is acquiring Looker to better tap into data. Looker will help Google provide customers with a consistent way to define business metrics across data resources, Google said. Consistency makes it easier for anyone to query data while maintaining steady definitions in their calculations, ensuring teams get accurate results.

Looker will also give users a comprehensive analytics solution, data insights, embedded analytics and visualizations, Google said. And enterprises that take care of their cloud computing needs via Google Cloud can better leverage the power of analytics, machine learning and AI, according to a press release.

"One of the most important ways we advance Google's mission is by helping other businesses realize theirs," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a release. "We are excited to welcome Looker to Google Cloud and look forward to working together to help our customers solve some of their biggest challenges."

Looker CEO Frank Bien said change is never easy but that Google and Looker have been close partners for four years.

"This is not, by any means, the end for Looker, but simply the closing of our first chapter with many more to come," Bien said in a release. "We have only just started together on this mission, and I look forward to continuing to build Looker within Google Cloud."