Ownership

Federal investigators have provided ample evidence that President Donald Trump was involved in deals to pay two women to keep them from speaking publicly before the 2016 election about affairs that they said they had with him. But it turns out that Trump wanted to go even further. He and his lawyer at the time, Michael D. Cohen, devised a plan to buy up all the dirt on President Trump that the National Enquirer and its parent company had collected on him, dating back to the 1980s, according to several of Trump’s associates.

Sinclair Broadcast Group filed a countersuit in an escalating legal battle with Tribune Media, after the two companies' proposed merger fell apart this month under federal scrutiny. The counterclaim maintains that Sinclair “pushed hard" to secure regulatory approval for the proposed tie-up and called Tribune’s subsequent attempt to distance itself from Sinclair “self-serving.” Sinclair is asking a Delaware court to find that it was Tribune that broke the terms of the merger agreement.

More than 100 Facebook employees have joined Mr. Amerige to form an online group called FB’ers for Political Diversity. The aim of the initiative is to create a space for ideological diversity within the company. The new group has upset other Facebook employees, who said its online posts were offensive to minorities.

If America’s tech and telecom giants have an opinion about T-Mobile US’s plan to reshape the wireless industry by taking over Sprint , most are keeping it to themselves.Few large companies have gone on record to back or oppose the roughly $26 billion merger, which would combine the country’s No. 3 and No. 4 carriers. Fewer still are using their lobbying prowess to fight the deal behind the scenes. “I don’t think you’re going to have any entity that has motive and means to oppose this deal” among big business, said Blair Levin, an industry analyst at New Street Research.

The tech industry has largely declared it is off limits to scan emails for information to sell to advertisers. Yahoo still sees the practice as a potential gold mine. Yahoo’s owner, the Oath unit of Verizon Communications has been pitching a service to advertisers that analyzes more than 200 million Yahoo Mail inboxes and the rich user data they contain, searching for clues about what products those users might buy, said people who have attended Oath’s presentations as well as current and former employees of the company. Oath said the practice extends to AOL Mail, which it also owns.

The Trump administration is “taking a look” at whether Google and its search engine should be regulated by the government, said Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s economic adviser. “We’ll let you know,” Kudlow said. “We’re taking a look at it.” The announcement puts the search giant squarely in the White House’s crosshairs amid wider allegations against the tech industry that it systematically discriminates against conservatives on social media and other platforms.

The Facebook/Google/Twitter trio are better prepared for this upcoming round of Congressional testimony on Sept. 5. Almost a year after the three companies first testified together in front of Congress for Russian meddling, the three social media giants will be returning to Capitol Hill to talk about censorship and election interference. Many recall CEO Mark Zuckerberg's positive performance during televised Facebook hearings in April following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but the last time these three companies faced Congress together, the reviews were brutal.

House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai urging the Commission to get to the bottom of allegations that Sinclair Broadcast Group lied to the FCC in the company’s failed attempt to acquire Tribune Media Company. In the letter, the lawmakers expressed their hope that the FCC’s Chief Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) would continue its ongoing review of the allegations against Sinclair.

Sprint and T-Mobile continue to work to obtain regulatory approval for their proposed merger. But, according to some analysts, don't expect the discussion to turn to conditions—including divestitures—until later in 2018. “We would not be surprised to see opponents refrain from offering conditions in these initial rounds of filings,” wrote the analysts at Wall Street firm New Street Research. “Generally, the opposition wants to push to kill the deal and only offer conditions as a last resort.

David Christopher, who runs AT&T’s wireless and entertainment businesses, has a bird’s eye view of how streaming media and video are evolving. AT&T recently completed its $85 billion purchase of Time Warner, a deal designed to help traditional media companies compete better with nimble tech services such as Netflix. Soon after the deal closed, AT&T launched WatchTV, a $15-a-month streaming service that offers more than 30 TV channels, including Time Warner channels TNT and TBS.