Databricks acquires Tabular, the company founded by the creators of Apache Iceberg

2024-06-04 · Publisher : Databricks · Domain : Cloud & DevOps

Databricks announces the acquisition of Tabular, founded by the creators of Apache Iceberg. The aim: bring the Delta Lake and Iceberg table formats closer. The price exceeds $1 billion, according to its CEO.

### Background On 4 June 2024, **Databricks** announced the acquisition of **Tabular**, a company founded by Ryan Blue, Daniel Weeks and Jason Reid, the creators of **Apache Iceberg**. The terms were not published, but Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi told CNBC that the price exceeded $1 billion. The deal came as Snowflake presented its Polaris catalog at the Data Cloud Summit. ### Key facts - Databricks wants to bring the two leading open lakehouse formats, Delta Lake and Iceberg, closer, with Delta Lake UniForm (then generally available), which works across Delta Lake, Iceberg and Hudi. - Ali Ghodsi quote: "The lakehouse paradigm has been split between the two most popular formats: Delta Lake and Iceberg." - According to press reports, Snowflake and Confluent had also bid for Tabular. - Closing expected in the second quarter of Databricks' fiscal year. ### Why it matters The table format has become the real lock-in point of data platforms: whoever controls it weighs on interoperability. By buying the Iceberg team, Databricks gives itself the option of no longer forcing a choice between two formats. For architects, the practical consequence is to favour tables readable by several engines, in order to keep the freedom to change platform. ### Takeaway The Tabular acquisition puts the Iceberg format at the centre of the battle between Databricks and Snowflake.

Tags : Données, Acquisition, Open Source, États-Unis