Google acquires Kaggle

Technology giant Google has announced the acquisition of Kaggle, a start-up that hosts a number of data scientists, for an undisclosed amount at the Cloud Next 2017 conference. Founded in 2010, Kaggle is home to the world’s largest community of data scientists and machine learning enthusiasts.

More than 8 Lakh data experts use Kaggle to explore, analyze and understand the latest updates in machine learning and data analytics. Kaggle and Google Cloud will continue to support machine learning and deployment services while offering the community the ability to store and query large datasets.

Google must lower the barriers of entry to AI and make it available to the largest community of developers, users and enterprises so that they can apply it to their own unique needs. Making Google Cloud Technology available to Kaggle community will allow us to offer access to powerful infrastructure, scalable training and deployment services and the ability to store and query large data sets.

Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, the two public clouds that are bigger than Google cloud, also offer data sciences services. Google cloud already provides Cloud Machine Learning  Engine, among other managed services for working on data.

Practo acquires Insta Health

India’s largest online doctor discovery company Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd has acquired Hospital information management solution provider Insta Health Solutions for $12 Million. It is Practo third acquisition after fitness solutions firm FitHo and product outsourcing firm Genii in the past six months.

The acquisition opens up an additional revenue stream for Practo and helps the company expand its presence among hospitals. The company at present generates revenue from Practo Ray, a doctor facing practice management software sold as a subscription based, software as a service product, and Practo Reach, a sponsored listing service for hospitals and clinics. Listing on Practo is free for products, while the company does not charge consumers for searches.

With this acquisition, Practo now gets access to more than 500 hospitals across 15 countries, including in Southeast Asia, West Asia and Africa, which use the company information management software. This adds on to Practo repertoire of software products for medical establishments. Insta Health Solutions will continue to operate as a separate entity.

Practo claims to facilitate 10 Million searches every month. There are more than 200,000 doctors, 5,000 diagnostic centres and 10,000 hospitals listed on its platform. To maintain its market dominance, Practo is making acquisitions and launching several products in new business. It is also fast expanding in International Markets and plans to expand to 10 countries. The company has also raised about $125 Million since its launch in 2008. 

Lenovo acquired Motorola from Google

In January this year, Lenovo announced it was going to buy Motorola Mobility business this year from Google. Now this deal is signed, Lenovo acquired Motorola from Google in $2.91 Billion. While Motorola is now a Lenovo Company, the brand will remain a subsidiary based out of Chicago. Google bought Motorola in 2012 for $12.5 Billion, at the time stating that it was interested in its patent portfolio. Now, Google maintains most of the patents and passes on the handset business to Lenovo.

Motorola Mobility, a Google company, creates mobile devices and wireless accessories that simplify, connect and enrich people lives. The acquisition of such an iconic brand, innovate product portfolio and incredibly talented global team will immediately make Lenovo a strong global competitor in smartphones. This deal made Lenovo the world’s third bestselling smartphone maker after Apple and Samsung.

Lenovo is the world’s bestselling PC maker, a position it attained after the takeover of IBM’s personal computer business in 2005. Its smartphones are already selling in Asia and the Middle East, but they have not been sold in North America and Western Europe. Lenovo and Motorola together form the third largest smartphone player worldwide, pushing rival Xiaomi from the No 3 position to No 4, according to date from IDC.

IDC worldwide smartphone data showed Samsung leading with 23.8%, followed by Apple with 12%, Xiaomi with 5.3%, and Lenovo following closely with 5.2%, and LG with 5.1%. Lenovo has a very good business in India through the offline channel and Motorola is present only on line. Since its resurrection early this year, Motorola has sold more than two million smartphones, including the Moto G, Moto X, and Moto E. The Motorola-Lenovo combine intends to sell about 100 Million smartphones and tablets globally by the end of march next year, while Lenovo aims to bring Motorola back to profitability within four to six quarters.

Motorola will operate their Motorola solutions as a separate business and is not a part of acquisitions. Motorola business formally split in 2011.