Google is reportedly readying a health service dubbed Google Fit, which will collect and aggregate data from various fitness trackers and health-related apps. “Google Fit will aggregate data through open APIs, instruction sets that allow apps to share information, and will also announce partnerships with wearable device makers at its I/O conference,” Forbes reports. “Such a service would mark a direct challenge to Apple’s HealthKit framework.” 

Mobile ad firm Amobee just gobbled up Adconion and Kontera, for $235 million and $150 million, respectively. Amobee itself was acquired by Singapore’s top phone carrier SingTel two years ago for $321 million. “Among [Adconion’s] twists and turns over the years, in 2009 it picked up the failed video network Joost -- originally founded by the creators of Skype,” TechCrunch notes. “Kontera, meanwhile, is a another long-in-the-tooth advertising startup that was something of a pioneer in ad tech and analytics.” 

Mobile will account for 85.9% of digital ad search dollars by 2018, reaching $28.41 billion, according to a new report from eMarketer. And Google's share will fall to 64.2% -- down from 82.8% in 2012. In 2013, Google's near-monopoly in mobile search shrunk nearly 15 percentage points, with standalone apps, such as Yelp, grabbing more search dollars.

The local listing and ad specialists at Yext just raised $50 million at a valuation of $525 million. Insight Venture Partners’ Deven Parekj led Series F round, along with Marker, IVP and Sutter Hill Ventures, reports Business Insider. Boasting more than 300,000 customers, “Its revenue grew 62% last year, from $34 million in 2013 to more than $55 million in 2014,” BI reports. 

The New York Times is bundling its opinion pages into a new standalone app, which will cost subscribers $6 a month. The new app, NYT Opinion, will consist of team steams: Today, including articles from the opinion section; and Op-Talk, which “will comb through the oceans of online commentary and select the most compelling from all over the world -- courtesy of a new team of Times editors,” according to The Times’ Andrew Rosenthal. 

Time Inc. just bought an app maker named Cozi. The Seattle-based start-up makes a family-oriented calendar, organizer and planning app, Family Organizer, that already has more than 10 million users, according to Folio. “Terms of the deal were not released, but Cozi will stay in Seattle and remain a standalone brand within the Time Inc. portfolio,” Folio reports. “The deal comes just four days before Time Inc. becomes a public company.”  

With its new mobile and Mac operating systems, Apple is aligning its software and hardware more closely than ever. Why? “The overwhelming purpose … is to make it irresistibly attractive to use all of its devices and services as a unified digital ecosystem, not to mix and match,” reasons Walt Mossberg. Yet, “The unifying software foundation Apple unveiled [this week] will only work if its next round of hardware devices is truly compelling.”