Google acquires UK start-up retail forecaster Rangespan

Internet giant Google has acquired UK start-up retail forecaster Rangespan, for an undisclosed sum.

This is the third acquisition of a British company by Goggle this year after it purchased London-based artificial intelligence company DeepMind and anti-malware startup Spider.io.

The acquisition is expected to help Google to expand its Google Shopping web portal and e-commerce offerings.

Rangespan broke the news on its home page,  ''We are very happy to announce that Rangespan is joining Google. We will continue to work on services for shoppers and retailers at Google, and we're super excited about the opportunities to come.''

''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.''

Founded in 2011 by two former Amazon.com executives, Matt Henderson and Ryan Regan, Rangespan provides an automated supply chain service that enables online retailers to expand product selection without risk.

The London-based company combines a number of technologies, including an order management system, supplier marketplace, customer protection system and product data catalogue, in one end-to-end service.

Rangespan, which was backed by Octopus Investments, has tracked and ranked hundreds of millions of products and automated the management of new suppliers to reduce the cost of adding new products for sale, according to its website.