The Week in Geek: Rover’s big acquisition, Bezos family’s record-breaking gift, and Pokemon Go’s surprising benefits

It was a busy week in Seattle — from startups to major research institutions to dogs.

Rover.com, one of Seattle’s most surprising startups, announced it is acquiring its biggest competitor, DogVacay. That puts the pet services company in a good position to gear up for an IPO in the near future, something it was already considering.

As GeekWire co-founder John Cook notes, Rover was pooh-poohed by many in the startup community when it was founded just six years ago. The company connects pet owners to services like walkers, dog sitters, doggy day care and just about anything else a doting pet parent could desire.

In other news, the family of Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos made a record-breaking donation this week: $35 million to Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the biggest private donation in the center’s history.

Jackie and Mike Bezos, Jeff’s parents, have been active Fred Hutch donors and advocates for almost a decade. They family has also given $30 million to fund cutting-edge immunotherapy research over the past seven years, and Fred Hutch’s newly opened immunotherapy clinic bears the Bezos name in their honor.

And, of course, Amazon finally unveiled its AmazonFresh Pickup stores. Check out this previous episode to hear from GeekWire reporters about reporting on the secretive project.

In our final segment, The Random Channel: what helps families bond, exercise together and learn about road safety? Pokemon Go, of course. Researchers at the University of Washington did an in-depth study on how parents and children came together over the popular augmented reality game, and they discovered a few surprising things along the way.

We also look at some stellar reporting on PB&J and the extreme measures one town is going to because people can’t look away from their cellphones.

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