As more enterprises continue to take their services to the cloud, Google is aiming to wrest away some of Amazon’s control of that market, which is why the tech giant announced yesterday that it plans to acquire the API management firm Apigee for $625 million.
APIs (application programming interfaces) enable users to connect with companies’ existing IT infrastructures, allowing those systems and software to be used for digital, mobile and cloud-based business. Founded in 2004 and publicly traded since 2015, Apigee helps enterprise 
users build and manage APIs.
Google’s announcement comes less than a year after the company hired VMware co-founder Diane Greene to reinvent its cloud business. Since then, she has led Google through a number of changes aimed at boosting its profile as a cloud services provider.
Accelerating the Move to Digital Business
“The addition of Apigee’s API solutions to Google cloud will accelerate our customers’ move to supporting their businesses with high quality digital interactions,” Greene wrote yesterday in a post on Google’s Cloud Platform blog. “Apigee will make it much easier for the requisite APIs to be implemented and published with excellence.”
Apigee’s services are used by hundreds of enterprise customers, including AT&T, Bechtel and Walgreens. For example, Walgreens uses a Photo Prints API to enable online customers to order and print photos at any store and it also has a Prescription API that lets people order refills via a mobile app.
“Apigee’s mission has been to build a company that powers the APIs and delivers the know-how to help enterprises navigate a new kind of business reality and operate as modern digital businesses in a multi-cloud world,” Apigee CEO Chet Kapoor wrote yesterday on his company’s blog. “We have a solid track record of working hand in hand with some of the largest and most demanding brands in the world to solve new problems and create new products. We can’t wait to see how much better and faster we can be with Google.”
Taking on Amazon, Microsoft
Speaking with Forbes after yesterday’s announcement, Greene said the addition of Apigee is “an incredible fit for us to be able to offer enterprise customers what they need in their digital transformation.” Set to close by the end of the year, the deal is expected to strengthen Google’s ability to compete with cloud services leaders like Amazon and Microsoft.
Just last week, Google announced the open beta release of Google Cloud Endpoints, a management suite for users deploying APIs through the Google Cloud Platform. Yesterday, Google and Box also announced a new partnership in which Box’s storage services will now integrate with Google Docs and Springboard.
Meanwhile, Oracle — also looking to considerably expand its position in the cloud market — has encountered a roadblock in its plans to acquire cloud pioneer NetSuite for $9.3 billion. According to a report by Reuters Wednesday, T. Rowe Price, a NetSuite shareholder, is opposing the deal on the ground that the price is too low.
