Google acquires UK retail forecasting firm Rangespan

Internet giant Google has bought Rangespan, a three-year retail start-up

founded by former Amazon executives, for an undisclosed amount.

The British firm was founded in 2011 by Amazon executives Matt Henderson and Ryan Regan and was backed by Octopus Investments. The retail forecasting company has previously helped clients including Tesco and Asda by using real-time sales data to help retailers determine which products to sell and when.

“We are very happy to announce that Rangespan is joining Google,” Rangespan said on its website. “We will continue to work on services for shoppers and retailers at Google, and we’re super excited about the opportunities to come.”

The acquisition of Rangespan marks Google’s third UK start-up acquisition this year as part of its aim to expand its Google Shopping web portal and e-commerce offerings. Early this year Google acquired London-based artificial intelligence specialist DeepMind and anti-malware start-up Spider.io.

The terms of the deal were not made public, however Rangespan’s technology will be integrated into Google and the UK start-up will no longer sell services to clients.

"As part of the change, we will wind down Rangespan's services. We've already begun working individually with each of our retailers and suppliers on this process," Rangespan confirmed on its website.