Apple Stock News: Startup Acquired and Donation to China Doubled

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Apple Double Donation to China Against COVID-19 Pandemic

In the Chinese social media Weibo, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook announced that the company’s donation to China’s effort against COVID-19 will rise to over 50 million yuan ($7 million). Recently, Apple started reopening its stores in the country and saw its stock trending up in the last week.

“China has shown incredible spirit and resilience during the COVID-19 outbreak and we are grateful to our teams, partners and customers for their support during these challenging times,” Cook said in a message on China’s Twitter equivalent Weibo.

Earlier, Apple already donated 10 million masks for health professionals in Europe and the United States.

Apple to Stop Taking Cut of Amazon and Spotify Purchases on App Store

In an announcement, Apple Inc decided to stop taking a cut of some sales in the App Store.

The purchases inside the App Store require the use of the Apple payment system, which takes a commission between 15 and 30%. Apple’s rivals in music and video streaming such as Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify tried to avoid this by asking users to sign with a credit card outside the App Store.

This leaded Spotify to file an antitrust complaint in the European Union and to also raise the issue with the U.S. Justice Department and the House Judiciary Committee.

To overturn this, Apple wrote in a statement that “qualifying premium video entertainment apps such as Prime Video, Altice One, and Canal+, customers have the option to buy or rent movies and TV shows using the payment method tied to their existing video subscription”, lifting the practice.

Still, the iPhone maker did not announce a date that the program will begin and not how apps are going to be qualified for this.

Apple Acquires AI Startup

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According to Bloomberg, Apple acquired the startup Voysis.

Voysis, founded in Dublin, Ireland, is a startup based on artificial intelligence that tries to understand better the people’s natural language by using a developed digital voice assistants platform. The company website, now removed, said that shopping phrases as “I need a new LED TV” and “My budget is $1,000” could be better understood by technology, providing the customer with better results.

An Apple spokesman told Bloomberg that the company “buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” The price paid for the acquisition was not revealed.

Read more about Apple Stock in 2020

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