Amazon acquired Health Navigator

Amazon.com Inc. has acquired Health Navigator, a medical technology startup, in an effort to bolster its health care offerings for employees.

The start-up will be wrapped into a clinic for workers that launched last month at the company’s Seattle-based headquarters. Called Amazon Care, the program offers virtual and in-person consultations, and delivery of prescriptions to employees’ offices and homes.

The company’s ambitions in health care have been the subject of fevered speculation in the industry and among investors well versed in Amazon’s record of disrupting established industries. Amazon has partnered with Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to launch Haven, a non-profit working on ways to halt the rise in employee health-care costs.

Separately, the company is working to build on nascent businesses that sell to health-care providers and consumers. Amazon last year bought PillPack, an online pharmacy. It also sells office and medical supplies through its Amazon Business program.

Berkshire Hathaway Buys Duracell

Berkshire Hathaway is an American Multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in United States. Company overseas and manages a number of subsidiary companies. The company is known for its control by investor Warren Buffet. In recent news, Berkshire Hathaway is buying the Duracell battery business from Procter and Gamble Co. in a deal valued at approximately $3 Billion.

P&G, the world’s largest consumer products maker, had announced last month that it wanted to make Duracell a standalone company. P&G, which acquired Duracell in 2005, said at the time that it preferred a spinoff of Duracell, but it was the considering a sale or other options. P&G will receive shares of its own stock that are currently held by Berkshire Hathaway. Those shares are currently valued at $4.7 Billion. Offsetting part of that price, P&G will contribute about $1.7 Billion to the Duracell business before the deal closes.

P&G whose products include Tide detergent and Pampers diapers, has been trimming its product lineup to focus on its top performers. After it finishes jettisoning more than half of its brands around the globe over the next year or two, P&G has said that it will be left with about 70 to 80 brands. Berkshire has a significant P&G shareholder since the consumer products firm acquired Gillette in 2005, but the Duracell acquisition will use nearly all of Berkshire 52.48 Million shares.

Duracell, whose batteries are known for their copper-colored tops, gives Buffet a familiar name to add to Berkshire’s stable of more than 80 businesses, including Benjamin Moore paint, the Diary Queen ice cream chain, and Heinz ketchup. While Duracell has more than one-fourth of the global market for batteries, demand has slackened amid the growth in smartphones and other devices that rely on rechargeable power sources.