In today's ExchangeWire news digest: Meta purchases Lofelt to boost its VR capabilities; the FTC launches an investigation into Amazon's USD$3.9bn (£3.3bn) deal to buy 1Life; and Apple surpasses Android devices used in the US.

Meta acquires Berlin’s Lofelt

Meta has purchased Lofelt, a Berlin-based startup which uses technology to replicate the sensation of touch in virtual reality (VR). The terms of the acquisition, which was made public on Friday (2nd September), are yet to be determined, although a financial filing for Lofelt in June of this year described Meta as the company’s sole shareholder. The company, which uses haptic technology to replicate touch through vibrations, raised USD$10m (£8.6m) in funding prior to the deal with Meta.

Amazon-1Life Healthcare deal investigated by FTC

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an investigation into Amazon’s purchase of 1Life Healthcare, which operates One Medical primary health clinics across the US. The e-commerce giant acquired the health-clinic owner for USD$3.9bn (£3.3bn) earlier this year in an effort to enter the country’s USD$4tn (£3.4tn) healthcare market.

This investigation is the FTC’s latest into Amazon, with the agency’s numerous probes into the Washington-based company including a probe into its membership programme, which was launched in August.

Apple devices surpass Androids in the US

Apple devices now account for over half of smartphones used in the United States, taking the iPhone maker ahead of its primary competitor Android. Apple reportedly surpassed the 50% landmark at the close of Q2 2022, taking the company to its highest market ownership since 2007, a year before Android-powered smartphones launched in the US.

Industry Issue

Introducing our first Industry Issue - a new feature that takes the pulse of the ad tech and media world.

Out first hot-button topic comes from Paul Gubbins from Publica, Paul's question is about the evolving nature of TV services, and how we define them going forward.

Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below via LinkedIn, and subscribe to The Stack, our Friday newsletter to see Paul's analysis of the results this week.

How long before we remove the 'C' from CTV and just call it TV again?

• Not for a long time yet!
• We should just call it TV again. 

Vote here. Subscribe to The Stack to find Paul’s analysis of the results on Friday.

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PressBox

Taboola News Combats Untrustworthy Sources on Social Networks

Audigent Partners with Epsilon Making its People-Based Audiences Available Through Audigent’s PMPs

Tenjin Backs GrowthStack's Launch of Self-Service Data Pipeline

Want to see your latest press releases featured on ExchangeWire? Email info@exchangewire.com to find out more about our PressBox service.

Fact of the Day

10 million – the number of orders Amazon receive per day, as of January 2022 (that's 115 orders per second).

Source: "Arriving Today" report (via Scott Galloway)

Last week's tech teasers

Inspired by Mark Zuckerberg's uncomfortable appearance on the controversial Joe Rogan experience, last Friday's tech teasers were all about the metaverse. Find out how much you know about "the next chapter of the internet overall" below:

• 7 million - the number of people who visited Nike’s metaverse store in its first five months of opening ✔️
• SnowCrash - the Neal Stephenson novel in which the term ‘metaverse’ was coined 📖
• USD$69.3m (£60.1m) - the amount digital artist Beeple’s NFT artwork Everydays: the First 5000 Days sold for 💰
• Horizon - the name of Meta’s ‘Social VR’ platform that they hope will define the metaverse 🤞
• USD$120bn (£104bn) - the estimated total metaverse investment in the first half of 2022 💸