Google Buys E-Commerce Firm Channel Intelligence for $125M

Search engine giant, Google, has agreed to a deal to acquire e-commerce company, Channel Intelligence, for $125 million.

The $125 million will be paid in cash, Channel Intelligence’s parent company, ICG, confirmed. The former's services offer technology that helps boost sale of products online. As well as a Facebook platform, it offers product search engines for firms wanting to improve their product sales.

Channel claims that it "drives $2 billion in sales annually in referred sales online in computing products, home improvement products, appliances, consumer electronics, toys and a variety of other consumer packaged goods."

"Building upon the perseverance and strong foundation laid by CI's founder Rob Wight, I am extremely proud of the work we accomplished at CI," said Doug Alexander, CEO of CI and President of ICG. "With the talent and hard work of the entire CI team, we successfully navigated a very complex marketplace, ending a record year that culminated in this very exciting acquisition."

Google has already entered the e-commerce market through its Shopping page and a Checkout tool for online merchants. It stressed that the acquisition of Channel should improve its shopping services.

"We want to help consumers save time and money by improving the online shopping experience," a spokesperson told CNET. "We think Channel Intelligence will help create a better shopping experience for users and help merchants increase sales across the web."

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