Google Cloud hires another Oracle veteran for top role

By Paresh Dave SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google Cloud has hired Amit Zavery to lead one of its engineering teams, a company spokeswoman confirmed on Monday, making him the highest-ranking Oracle executive to reunite with former Oracle President Thomas Kurian since he became Google Cloud's chief executive. Zavery left last week as executive vice president for Oracle cloud platform. He started on Monday as a Google Cloud vice president of engineering and will lead the Apigee team, the spokeswoman said. Oracle Corp declined to comment. Zavery worked at Oracle for about 24 years, starting as a software engineer and most recently looking over a portfolio of application development tools for cloud computing customers. Some analysts estimate that the portfolio, combined with fees from hosting data on the cloud, will generate $2.1 billion in revenue for Oracle during its fiscal 2019. Google gained some similar tools through its $625 million acquisition of Apigee in 2016. Apigee Chief Executive Chet Kapoor, who became a vice president at Google, is remaining with the company, the spokeswoman said. Zavery will help Google add to its tools platform, which helps businesses develop applications for their workers or customers. Kurian last month said Google Cloud would focus on trying to win business from the biggest companies in a handful of industries by offering them a wider variety of specialized services. Google is a distant No. 3 to Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp in selling cloud storage and services. Kurian spent 22 years at Oracle before leaving last year and joining Google shortly after. (Reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)