FOMO: The Biggest News from Last Week (02.05.18)

4 min readFeb 5, 2018

About us: HowDo ( www.howdo.com ) intends to empower professionals with the information they need. We collect the best coverage of what happened last week to keep you up-to-date on what’s happening in your job-function, industry and beyond

Highlights from Last Week:

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Team Up to Try to Disrupt Health Care by Nick Wingfield, Katie Thomas, and Reed Abelson — The New York Times

“The alliance was a sign of just how frustrated American businesses are with the state of the nation’s health care system and the rapidly spiraling cost of medical treatment. It also caused further turmoil in an industry reeling from attempts by new players to attack a notoriously inefficient, intractable web of doctors, hospitals, insurers and pharmaceutical companies.”

Google Bets a Billion Dollars More Brains Can Help Take On Apple by Shelly Banjo and Mark Bergen — Bloomberg

“The deal will help Google design more of its own consumer hardware and could set it up to wade deeper into special-purpose chips — like Apple. Google’s most recent Pixel model came with a new image processor to improve the device’s camera. More of this “custom silicon” will come in the future, Google’s hardware chief Rick Osterloh said in an interview. ”

EBay Rises to Record High on Shift to Adyen; PayPal Tumbles by Spencer Soper and Julie Verhage — Bloomberg

“EBay Inc. rose to a record high after giving an optimistic revenue forecast and unveiling plans to shift its payments business from long-time partner PayPal Holdings Inc. to Adyen BV, a global payments company based in the Netherlands. Shares of PayPal tumbled.”

Jeff Bezos on Amazon’s Alexa: ‘We don’t see positive surprises of this magnitude very often’ by Matt Weinberger — Business Insider

“Our 2017 projections for Alexa were very optimistic, and we far exceeded them,” Bezos said in the company’s earnings announcement. “We don’t see positive surprises of this magnitude very often — expect us to double down.”

Tesla’s Musk sells $10 million in flamethrowers in four days (To take distract from lagged production) — Reuters

“The latest impromptu fundraising scheme comes at a time when financial analysts and investors in Tesla are wondering if Musk will have to seek billions more in funding for the electric car maker as it struggles to meet promises on production.”

Analysis Corner: Big Tech + Healthcare

The biggest story of last week was Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan’s announced partnership to take on healthcare. Why is this such a big deal? Why is this happening now? Here are some sources from the web that shed light on this issue.

America’s Unique Healthcare Market

Why the U.S. Spends So Much More Than Other Nations on Health Care — New York Times, The Upshot

The team at The Upshot explains the problem — and opportunity — associated with US healthcare costs.

Tech Companies Are Honing in On the Healthcare Market

How Big Tech Is Going After Your Health Care — New York Times

The New York Times looks at the Big Tech’s activity in the healthcare sector, highlighting their trajectory with relevant acquisitions and investments.

From Wearables To Telemedicine To Direct-to-Consumer Prescriptions, Here’s How Healthcare Is Becoming Consumer-Centric — CBinsights

CBinsights breaks down this trend further by looking deeper into the categories that are being targeted by startups and big corporations alike.

The Market’s Reaction

The ‘Amazon Effect’ Rattles Health-Care Stocks — The Wall Street Journal

Looking To The Future

Amazon’s Long-Awaited Health Care Platform — Inc

Alex Moazed of Applico highlights some of the realities of the healthcare market, highlighting the dominance of the 3 major PBMs and how they’ve been benefiting from a lack of transparency.

Amazon Health — Stratechery

Ben Thompson digs deep into the partnership’s end goal. He cites Amazon’s tendency to become a tax on economic activity (marketplace, AWS) and stresses that these firms are in it for the long haul.

TecHipster Zeitgeist

For those who, like HowDo, are obsessed with buzzworthy and trendy tech.

Artificial Intelligence:

Automation:

Waymo Lauches Its Self-Driving Armada

Blockchain:

Data:

Treat Yo Self (to some professional development)

Chances are, your employer isn’t teaching you about the new hotness. HowDo’s here to help:

Human Resources:

Legal:

Logistics:

Marketing:

Public Relations:

Product:

What Do You Think?

Did we miss anything this week? Please let us know in the comments.

Peace, love and do not stop the rock,

West.