Google buys Apigee for API management in $625m deal

API management specialist founded in 2004 to be absorbed by search giant

Search giant Google is to acquire API management specialist Apigee in a deal that values the publicly traded company, founded in 2004, at $625m.

APIs are becoming more integral to businesses' digital operations by enabling them to control how different apps and services integrate with one another. Google said that adding Apigee's technology to its portfolio will help its customer base.

"The addition of Apigee's API solutions to Google cloud will accelerate our customers' move to supporting their businesses with high-quality digital interactions," Google cloud senior vice president Diane Greene claimed in a blog post.

"Apigee will make it much easier for the requisite APIs to be implemented and published with excellence."

Apigee has some big name customers, including BBC Worldwide, Fujitsu, Ticketmaster, Morrisons, Orange and Walgreens.

"Walgreens, for example, uses Apigee to manage the APIs that enable an ecosystem of partners and developers building apps using Walgreens APIs, including the Photo Prints API (enabling mobile app developers to include the ability for their app users to print photos at any Walgreens store), and the Prescription API (enabling users to quickly order refills of prescriptions right from their mobile app)," said Greene.

She also touched on the importance of security for APIs and said that Apigee's background in this made it an ideal fit with Google.

"A good API needs to support security, give developers the freedom to work in the development environment of their choice and allow the company to continue to innovate while supporting a stable interface to the apps and services using the API," explained Greene.

She added that the analytics Apigee provides are vital in allowing developers to properly test and assess their apps in production and once live.

Chet Kapoor, Apigee CEO, added that as more firms embrace the cloud making its API management service more available will help them handle this transition.

"We've entered a new era of cloud computing where enterprises are increasingly running business-critical applications in the cloud and across multiple clouds," he said.

"With their history of innovation in web and mobile technologies, we believe Google is the partner for companies embarking on digital transformations."