Ownership

The Walt Disney Co.’s pending deal to buy certain assets of 21st Century Fox were briefly interrupted by a larger offer from Comcast, but the cable giant’s reluctance to offer a termination fee and concerns that the transaction would face stiff resistance from regulatory bodies pushed Fox towards a less lucrative deal with Disney, according to federal filings. Fox’s fears were bolstered by the Department of Justice’s decision to block another large vertical merger – AT&T and Time Warner Inc. – that was eerily similar to a Comcast pairing.

The American Cable Association, which represents small and midsized cable operators, has a response to broadcasters' proposals to double their audience reach: No way. The ACA told the Federal Communications Commission that the proposal is both ill-conceived and unlawful. The National Association of Broadcasters wants the FCC to extend the UHF discount to VHF stations, which means all broadcast groups could effectively double their audience reach cap from 39% to 78% of the national audience.

Facebook has moved more than 1.5 billion users out of reach of European privacy law, despite a promise from Mark Zuckerberg to apply the “spirit” of the legislation globally. In a tweak to its terms and conditions, Facebook is shifting the responsibility for all users outside the US, Canada and the European Union from its international HQ in Ireland to its main offices in California. It means that those users will now be on a site governed by US law rather than Irish law.

Time Warner chief executive Jeff Bewkes denied that AT&T will raise the price of TV channels such as CNN and TBS as a result of the two companies' $85 billion merger, calling the Justice Department's landmark case to block the deal "ridiculous."  "I think it's ridiculous," he said.

One of the brothers who control Sinclair Broadcasting has donated more than $10,000 to Rep Greg Gianforte (R-MT), the congressman who assaulted a journalist and then lied to police about it. Robert E Smith, whose company is the biggest owner of television stations in the US, gave a maximum $5,400 campaign contribution to Rep Greg Gianforte. He did the same in 2017.

More than 30 high-tech companies, led by Microsoft and Facebook, announced a set of principles that included a declaration that they would not help any government — including that of the United States — mount cyberattacks against “innocent civilians and enterprises from anywhere, reflecting Silicon Valley’s effort to separate itself from government cyberwarfare.

As Facebook has taken it on the chin over the way it has handled the personal information of its users, the leaders of other tech companies have demonstrated that even in publicity-hungry Silicon Valley, it is entirely possible for billionaire executives and their sprawling empires to keep a low profile.

Michael Ferro, who resigned recently as chairman of Chicago-based newspaper chain Tronc, has struck a deal to sell his entire stake in the company, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ferro, who owned more than 25% of Tronc -- the parent of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other newspapers -- agreed to sell his more than 9 million shares at $23 per share, or $208.6 million, to McCormick Media, pending approval by regulators.

Under Chairman Ajit Pai, the Federal Communications Commission has set an aggressive agenda of relaxing or wholly scrapping rules intended to limit the influence of nationwide broadcasters and to keep media consolidation at bay.

The tech industry’s engineers and entrepreneurs saw the Facebook hearings as more than just the grilling of one of its stars.  To them, the congressional criticism against Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg felt like a referendum on the industry itself and on the social network’s growth-at-any-cost playbook that hundreds of start-ups have sought to emulate over the last decade — and that some have turned against.