Tag Archives: googl

Apple Hires Former Google X Lab Leader For Health Care Push

Apple ( AAPL ) continues to bring in more engineering talent amid a fall for its stock. The company has reportedly hired Yoky Matsuoka, most recently head of technology at Google’s Nest, to work on health science projects. Matsuoka, a robotics expert, co-founded Google’s experimental Google X lab in 2009 before joining Nest. While Nest has been struggling, Matsuoka left the smart house company last year before negative media reports surfaced. A Fortune report says Matsuoka will work on Apple’s HealthKit, ResearchKit and Carekit software projects. Apple last month hired Chris Porritt, who had been Tesla ’s ( TSLA ) vice president of vehicle engineering. He will work on Titan, Apple’s car project, reports say. Google restructured last year, creating  Alphabet ( GOOGL ) as the umbrella company over its main company, Google, and over its far-flung investments, known internally as “Other Bets.” Google bought Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in early 2014. Nest, a maker of web-connected devices, then acquired Dropcam for $555 million in cash. Nest CEO Tony Fadell has come under pressure as top executives leave. As a senior vice president at Apple before co-founding Nest in 2008, Fadell helped developed the iPod. Former Dropcam CEO Greg Duffy and other employees recently left Nest. Nest also has parted ways with its director of hardware design and engineering, Shige Honjo, said Re/code .

Twitter Stock Sinks To An All-Time Low, As Facebook, Google Grow

Well on its way toward a fifth straight day of declines, Twitter ( TWTR ) stock hit an all-time low Tuesday, a collapse that began after it posted Q1 earnings on April 26 which included revenue that missed Wall Street targets, as did its sales guidance for the current quarter. The stock fell 16% the following day, as Twitter collected a wave of price-target cuts and ratings downgrades amid the company’s struggles to add more users. Twitter stock fell as low as 13.90 Tuesday, a penny below its previous all-time low of 13.91, touched on Feb. 11. In the stock market today , Twitter stock closed at 14.01, down 2.7%. The microblog has seen its user growth steadily slow while failing to make many inroads in digital ad growth against juggernauts Facebook ( FB ) and Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google. Twitter has gained little ground in social media advertising, Michael Nathanson, an analyst at MoffettNathanson, wrote in a new research report that says Facebook and Google dominate digital ads like no other media marketplace. In November, Twitter brought back company co-founder Jack Dorsey as CEO in a bid to revive the company. Twitter stock is down nearly 40% this year.

Google Inks Driverless Car Pact With Fiat Chrysler

Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Google and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles ( FCAU ) have inked a deal to collaborate, with Fiat Chrysler putting Google’s self-driving car technology into 100 of its Pacifica minivans, the companies announced Tuesday afternoon. The Google Self-Driving Car Project and FCA called it a first-of-its-kind collaboration  that will expand Google’s existing self-driving test program. This marks the first time that Google has worked directly with an automaker to integrate its self-driving system, including its sensors and software, into a passenger vehicle, the companies said. The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans will be used later this year for Google’s self-driving testing, more than doubling Google’s current fleet of self-driving test vehicles, according to the press release. The said both companies will co-locate part of their engineering teams at a facility in southeastern Michigan to accelerate the design, testing and manufacturing of the self-driving Chrysler Pacifica.   The agreement, reportedly non-exclusive, had been expected. Speculation over a Google-Fiat Chrysler deal  had surfaced late last month. Google had earlier been in negotiations with General Motors ( GM ), but those talks reportedly stalled. GM has invested in Lyft as part of an alliance that involves autonomous efforts with the ride-hailing service. Other companies in the autonomous car race include Tesla Motors ( TSLA ), Apple ( AAPL ), Toyota ( TM ) and Ford ( F ). Apple has yet to confirm any car plans, though its intentions are seen as an open secret. In April, the company hired Chris Porritt, who had been Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering. He will work on Titan, Apple’s car project, say reports. A German newspaper last month said a potential Apple partner is Magna Steyr, the world’s largest contract automaker.