Salesforce ‘walked away’ from Twitter bid

With Google, Disney, and Apple supposedly out of the picture, Salesforce was the other big company rumoured to be taking over Twitter. But according to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff that’s also over. “In this case we’ve walked away. It wasn’t the right fit for us,” Benioff told the Financial Times. Now, it looks like Twitter won’t have a buyer anytime soon. Salesforce confirmed Benioff’s quote but didn’t have any additional comments. Twitter, on the other hand, declined to comment.

Source: CNET

Etsy to bring AI into its search with latest acquisition

Etsy’s looking to make the online shopping on its platform just a bit easier with its latest purchase. The design and craft marketplace bought Blackbird Technologies, a startup that specializes in developing algorithms that can help Etsy boost its search feature. The acquisition could bring things like natural language processing, analytics, and image recognition.

Financial terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed but all members of the team (a lean 10 people) will be coming onboard to Etsy. And since Etsy will be using their tech, any clients they may have won’t get access to the API anymore. This new purchase can also help keep its competitors at bay and give a better experience for its shoppers.

Source: TechCrunch

Apple acquisition might give you access to your digital health records

Photo: VSPYCC/FlickrPardon the pun but you might be able to get a glimpse of your personal health records with one of Apple’s latest acquisitions. Apple bought Gliimpse recently, a company that specializes in helping users securely collect and share their personal medical records digitally in whatever manner you want. This new purchase could help Apple venture into medical records management and maybe even analysis. Apple can combine its recently launched CareKit platform—which allows companies to develop medical apps since it gives access to personal health data collected by Apple devices—with the technology they get from Gliimpse and offer doctors a more complete medical profile of their patients. Of course, we have to see how secure the collection will be and if companies will get behind it.

Source: Popular Science + Fast Company

Microsoft buys livestreaming service Beam to boost interaction on the platform

Microsoft’s latest acquisition might be giving them an advantage in the livestreaming space. Its latest buy is livestreaming service Beam, a platform that lets viewers interact in real-time with the streamers while they broadcast. This is in contrast with Twitch that only allows passive viewing. Beam’s SDK doesn’t just allow for simple chatting and streaming, it allows you to directly interface with the streamers and even get involved in the game. You can earn XP points, boosters, and emoticons based on how much and how often you watch.

Beam will be part of the Xbox team and its CEO Matt Salsamendi is viewing this as a positive for them as well. Salsamendi says, "As part of the Xbox team, we'll be able to scale faster than we've ever been able to before." 

Source: Engadget