Coinbase acquires crypto derivatives exchange Deribit for $2.9 billion
Close-up of a hand holding a cellphone displaying the Amazon Pharmacy system, Lafayette, California, September 15, 2021.
Smith Collection | Gado | Getty Images
Amazon is expanding its online pharmacy to fill prescription pet medications, the company announced Thursday.
The company said it has added “hundreds of commonly prescribed pet medications” to its U.S. site, ranging from flea and tick solutions to treatments for chronic conditions.
Prescriptions are purchased via Amazon’s storefront and must be approved by a veterinarian. Online pet pharmacy Vetsource will oversee the dispensing and delivery of medications, said Amazon, adding that items are typically delivered within two to six days.
Amazon launched its digital drugstore in 2020 with the added perk of discounts and free delivery for Prime members. The company has been working to speed up prescription shipments over the past year, bringing same-day delivery to a handful of U.S. cities. Last October, Amazon set a goal to make speedy medicine delivery available in nearly half of the U.S. in 2025.
The new pet medication offerings puts Amazon into more direct competition with online pet pharmacy Chewy, as well as Walmart, which offers pet prescription delivery.
Amazon Pharmacy is part of the company’s growing stable of healthcare offerings, which also includes One Medical, the primary care provider it acquired for roughly $3.9 billion in July 2022. Amazon’s online pharmacy was born out of the company’s 2018 acquisition of online pharmacy PillPack.
Whoop member wears the new device.
Courtesy of Whoop
Whoop on Thursday announced two new wearable devices, Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG, which feature sleeker hardware, a longer battery life and additional in-app health insights.
Both of the company’s new devices are designed for 24/7 wear.
The Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG support 14 days of battery life, which is around triple the four-to-five-day range offered by Whoop 4.0. The new hardware is also 7% smaller than the previous device, with a processor that’s 60% faster, the company said.
“We’ve taken everything we’ve learned over the past decade and built a platform to help our members perform and live at their peak for longer,” Whoop founder and CEO Will Ahmed said in a release.
The launch marks Whoop’s first major hardware update since 2021, when the company released Whoop 4.0. Whoop said its new devices will help users understand how their daily decisions impact their performance and health outcomes over time, according to a release.
Cost and tiers
There are three annual membership tiers: Whoop One, which costs $199 and includes the Whoop 5.0; Whoop Peak, which costs $239 and includes the Whoop 5.0; and Whoop Life, which costs $359 and includes the Whoop MG. Accessories like additional bands will come at an extra cost.
Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG memberships and accessories are available for purchase online starting on Thursday.
Whoop’s new membership options.
Whoop
Whoop One members will be able to use their Whoop 5.0 to measure sleep, strain and recovery, as well as the cardiovascular and muscular impact of various workouts. Users can also track their menstrual cycles and pregnancies.
Whoop Peak builds on those core metrics. Members have access to a Health Monitor feature, which provides a quick look at vitals like respiratory rate, heart rate, blood oxygen, and skin temperature. Whoop Peak also supports a real-time stress monitor, where users can see their stress level and complete guided breathing sessions if they’d like to increase relaxation or alertness.
The company also unveiled a feature called Healthspan, which uses nine metrics to calculate adult users’ Whoop Age and Pace of Aging. A user’s Whoop Age compares their physiological age to their actual age, and Pace of Aging assesses how fast or slow someone is aging based on their behavior.
The Healthspan feature is updated every week, and users will get tips about how they can improve their Whoop Age and Pace of Aging in their app. Whoop developed this feature in partnership with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, the company said.
The most comprehensive membership is Whoop Life, which will give users access to additional medical-grade health features with Whoop MG.
Whoop Life members can record an electrocardiogram, or an ECG, to detect irregular heart rhythms like AFib, high heart rate or low heart rate. Once the reading is complete, they can share a PDF of the recording with their doctor.
The ECG feature has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It’s not intended for users under 22 years old, or for users with a cardiac pacemaker or other implanted devices. It will be available in the U.S., the UAE and Qatar at launch, with additional countries coming soon.
Whoop Life members can also get daily insights about their blood pressure, including estimated systolic and diastolic ranges. Users will have to log a traditional cuff-reading to act as a baseline to unlock this feature, and it’s not intended for treatment, diagnosis or medical use.
Whoop said Blood Pressure Insights has been in development for several years, and the feature is currently in beta.
Quick takeaways
Ashley Capoot wearing Whoop MG
Ashley Capoot
I got a sneak peek at the Whoop MG, and I’ve been wearing it for the past few days. I can’t speak to what it’s like to wear the device over an extended period, but my initial experience has been largely positive.
From a hardware standpoint, the Whoop MG looks and feels sleeker than the Whoop 4.0, which I tested out in April. The actual sensor is roughly an inch wide, and the band is slightly thinner than that. I’ve found that both the Whoop MG and the Whoop 4.0 are a little hard to take off — you really have to tug on the latch.
The Whoop MG’s setup is very straightforward, and I was up and running on the app in a matter of minutes. With all the new features, there’s a lot of additional data to make sense of, so the app seemed pretty busy to me at first. I felt like I had a better handle on it after a few hours, though, and I haven’t felt pressure to constantly monitor it.
Of the new features, I thought Healthspan was particularly interesting. As a relatively healthy 24-year-old, I noticed I still felt relieved to be “younger” than my age. I’d be curious to see how that feature would change based on my behaviors from week to week.
I also liked the Whoop MG’s detailed sleep tracking and the real-time stress monitor, as stress is something I’ve personally been trying to be more mindful of. I’ve learned that my stress levels really skyrocket while I’m taking public transport, for instance, and adjust accordingly.
After about a dozen tries, I wasn’t able to log a successful ECG reading. I kept getting errors, even after switching wrists and the positioning of my arms. That’s been disappointing, as I’m interested to see my results. The Blood Pressure Insights are neat, and assuming other users can successfully record ECG readings, it’s easy to see the potential benefit. That said, I don’t think I need those features in my daily life yet, so the Whoop Life membership probably wouldn’t be the right pick for me.
I’m not totally sold on the Whoop MG’s aesthetics. I have small hands and wrists, so I always feel like smart devices tend to look clunky on me.
I definitely felt like the Whoop 4.0 was too big for me, but the Whoop MG doesn’t bother me quite as much. That’s just my personal taste, and there are lots of Whoop accessories you can buy to spiff up the device for different occasions.
After just a few days, there’s a lot I can still learn from the Whoop MG, but I feel like I’d personally reach for the Whoop 5.0. The range of membership options helps ensure that users don’t have to break the bank, so I’d feel comfortable recommending Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG to my friends and family. And for existing Whoop customers who are thinking about an upgrade, the extended battery life alone is worth considering.
WATCH: CEO of fitness tracker company Whoop on $3.6 billion valuation, outlook
The logo of Shopify is seen outside its headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, September 28, 2018.
Chris Wattie | Reuters
Shares of Shopify dipped more than 5% in early trading on Thursday after the company posted mixed first-quarter results and issued soft guidance for the current period.
Here’s how the company did:
- Revenue: $2.36 billion vs. $2.33 billion expected by LSEG
- Earnings per share: 39 cents adjusted vs. 26 cents expected by LSEG
For the second quarter, Shopify said it expects gross profit to grow at a high-teens percentage rate, while analysts had forecast a rate of 20.1%, according to StreetAccount. The company forecast revenue to expand at a mid-twenties percentage rate compared with a year earlier. Wall Street had forecast roughly 22% growth.
Shopify sells software for merchants who run online businesses as well as services such as advertising and payment processing tools. Many of Shopify’s merchants are small- to medium-sized businesses, giving it some exposure to President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on Chinese imports, which total 145%. As part of Trump’s tariffs, the president last week closed a trade loophole favorable to many online businesses that allowed shipments from China under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free.
On a call with investors, Shopify President Harley Finkelstein said the expiration of de minimis isn’t expected to have a “meaningful impact” on Shopify in the near term. Roughly 1% of its gross merchandise volume is related to imports from China that were subject to the exemption, he said.
The company hasn’t seen “broad based price increases” among sellers yet, Finkelstein said. He added that consumers who purchase from Shopify businesses skew higher income, with more than half of buyers in the U.S. having incomes above $100,000.
“We believe this helps insulate our merchants from some of the potential swings in pricing or other market factors, as higher income consumers tend to be less price sensitive,” Finkelstein said. “We acknowledge the uncertainty ahead and are actively monitoring our data to help us support our merchants and adapt to whatever changes may arise.”
Earlier this year, Shopify also added a “buy local” tool to its site, allowing shoppers to filter products to items sold by merchants in their country.
E-commerce companies are bracing for the impact of Trump’s tariffs. Amazon earlier this month issued light operating income guidance for the second quarter, highlighting “tariff and trade policies” as a factor weighing on its outlook. Etsy, meanwhile, said last week it’s staying “nimble” to the tariff uncertainty, while the company’s finance chief Lanny Baker noted that the company’s “direct tariff exposure appears to be relatively low.”
GMV, a key metric that measures the total volume of goods sold on the platform, was $74.75 billion during the first quarter. That fell just short of consensus estimates for $74.8 billion, according to StreetAccount.
Revenue for the quarter was up about 27% to $2.36 billion, beating analysts’ projected $2.33 billion. Subscription solutions revenue came in at $620 million during the quarter, which was lighter than the $621.5 million forecast by Wall Street.
Shopify stock chart
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