Apple Inc. Add to portfolio

This is a huge deal for Apple, as the first record-sharing platform of its kind available to VA patients. It should be noted that the VA is the largest medical system in the U.S., serving more than 9 million patients across 1,243 facilities. Apple has already enlisted hundreds of hospitals, clinics, and other health institutions to support the Health Records feature of the Health app, which allows patients to see their aggregated medical information from participating institutions (now including the VA), organized into one view in the Health app. Health records data includes allergies, conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures and vitals, and is displayed along with other information in the Health app like Apple Watch data.

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"One of the most exciting parts of my job right now is to see the technology that's usually equated with California and the West Coast, whether it's AI, machine learning [or] robotics, ... more and more being integrated into health care," Gorsky, the chairman and CEO, told CNBC's Jim Cramer in a "Mad Money" interview. The two giants are using the Watch in a cardiovascular health study to see how it impacts early detection of atrial fibrillation, or heart flutters, which can lead to stroke and other debilitating conditions. Apple already introduced an electrocardiogram feature for the Watch in December, marking the first release of a mass-market product with an ECG. But there has been some debate around its accuracy, which this tie-up could help improve. Gorsky also briefly addressed the scandal that shaved $40 billion off Johnson & Johnson's market cap in December: a Reuters report that accused the company of knowing for decades that there were traces of asbestos in its baby powder product.

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Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL) may finally be ready to unveil its news and video-streaming subscription services, according to reports this past week about a planned March 25 event. While both projects have long been rumored, Apple has released no real details about them. The tech giant has been under increased pressure to come up with additional revenue streams to counterbalance a dip in iPhone sales and a maturing smartphone market. For the past quarter, the company's iPhone revenue was down 15%, year over year. Having 1.4 billion active iPhone devices worldwide that it can push new services on, such as news and video subscriptions, makes this a potentially fruitful announcement. That's because, as the streaming space expands to include companies like Disney(NYSE: DIS), Apple, HBO, Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN), and others, users are having to subscribe to two or more services and navigating separate apps for each one.

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Tech giant Apple Inc. plans to buy Pullstring, a voice application company based in San Francisco, for an undisclosed sum, Axios reported Friday, citing multiple sources. Pullstring was founded in 2011 by former Pixar executives for enhanced computer-based conversations and is backed by Greylock Partners, Charles River Ventures, Khosla Ventures, True Ventures, and First Round Capital among others, according to its website. Axios said the deal will help Siri become more competitive against Amazon.com Inc.'s Alexa given that the iPhone maker has trailed both Google and Amazon in adoption and development of voice technology. Shares of Apple were unchanged in the late trade after falling 0.2% to close at $170.42 in the regular session.

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In January, CNBC's Jim Cramer suggested that such a move would make sense for Apple, as it looks to get deeper into health care. Faulkner, who's the third richest woman in the country, runs her company with a strict mantra to never do deals, and never go public. Most CEOs would not balk at the idea of Apple buying their company.

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Apple Inc. appears ready to launch its long-awaited video streaming service in the spring, but Jefferies analyst Tim O'Shea isn't yet convinced that the efforts will help Apple achieve an inflection in growth. "Even with video, services growth is not enough to offset iPhone unit declines, which should persist through 2019 and beyond," he wrote. Apple is reportedly having trouble signing big potential video partners such as Netflix Inc. , which has been pushing back in general against Apple's take rate. "The 30% revenue share could reduce the amount of third party video content in this service, limiting its potential," O'Shea said, though it's still not clear exactly what the company's revenue-sharing arrangements for the video service will be as the company has yet to announce the offering. While publishers like Netflix are rebelling against Apple's 30% cut of App Store revenue, the largest app there only accounts for 0.3% of total services revenue. " For video, if a single major producer pulls out it would be a much bigger problem," O'Shea wrote.

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Another portfolio manager at Berkshire had a position in Apple and sold a portion of it to make an unrelated purchase, Reuters reported. "None of the shares under Warren's direction have ever been sold," Buffett's assistant Debbie Bosanek said in an email to Reuters. Buffett first announced Berkshire was buying Apple in February 2017 despite his usual aversion to tech stocks. And since then, Berkshire's position in the iPhone-maker has grown significantly. New stakes in Suncor, Red Hat. While paring the Apple holdings, Berkshire added more than 10.8 million shares of Suncor, an energy company based in Calgary, Canada, in the fourth quarter, according to a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Apple reportedly bought an AI marketing start-up as it looks for opportunities beyond the iPhone. Apple has acquired AI-assisted marketing startup DataTiger, according to Bloomberg. Founded in 2017 and based in London, DataTiger says it sells software services that provide artificial intelligence-assisted marketing. Apple has continued to focus more on selling services, not just hardware products like iPhones, and it may be looking for new ways to tell consumers about what it offers.

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"The next few quarters will be an uphill battle, but we're predicting a trillion-dollar market cap for Apple in 2019." In order to move into a new growth phase, Apple would have to invest in its services offering, Ives added. "You need content, you need fuel in that engine. They're lacking original content and lacking video content, which is why we believe they'll buy a large film studio in 2019," he told CNBC. "We've talked about potentially Sony, Lionsgate, A24 – a CBS or Viacom is potentially still on the table as well as a Netflix, as that's the key to drive the services business." "In my opinion, the biggest strategic mistake Apple has made since Cook took over is not buying Netflix," Ives added.

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Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Snap Inc.recently announced a collaboration with LEGO Wear to launch the latter’s first limited-edition clothing line for adults. Upon scanning the Snapcode, Snapchat users got to experience a virtual shop on their smartphone, featuring an interactive DJ booth, LEGO bouncer, arcade machine and clothes displayed on LEGO mannequins. In the recently reported quarter, management stated that on average more than 70% of users played with or viewed an AR Lens every day, indicating the growing popularity of Snap’s Lens.

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