Facebook’s blockbuster $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp won’t necessarily kick off a consolidation wave. There aren’t that many more major OTT players left in the market that aren’t focused on Asia.
In the latest instalment of an ongoing manifesto on the future of news and journalism that he has been conducting over Twitter, venture investor Marc Andreessen talks about what has been holding the traditional media industry back from success in moving to digital
Comcast has offered to merge with Time Warner in a $45-billion deal that would combine two of the country’s largest cable providers. Here’s what you need to know about the potential impact of such a merger and whether it is likely to be approved or not
Last summer’s rumors of cable consolidation are back in the spotlight. But if the industry consolidates, it’s not about television, but about what you’ll pay for broadband that regulators should focus on.
Leap Wireless(s leap) shareholders on Thursday signed off on AT&T’s(s t) planned buyout of the carrier, its 5 million Cricket Communications subscribers and, most importantly, its spectrum. The vote wasn’t even close with 99 percent shares voted in favor of the $1.2 billon cash deal, though their approval was pretty much a given. The acquisition now faces its biggest challenges: regulatory reviews before the Federal Communications Commission (with newly installed chairman Tom Wheeler at the helm) and the U.S. Justice Department.
Wheeler will take over an FCC about to oversee a huge transfer of airwaves from the broadcast to the mobile industry, as well as wrestle with issues such as net neutrality and carrier consolidation.
AT&T closed the deal shortly after getting the FCC’s green light and announced its plans to begin shutting down Alltel’s network immediately. The FCC, however, imposed several conditions to make sure Alltel’s customers are protected.
The deal would see Telefonica buy KPN’s E-Plus network. The combined O2 Deutschland and E-Plus would have 43.3 million subscribers, leapfrogging Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone to grab the number one spot.
The shareholder vote was the last step in a long chain of approvals necessary to cement the deal. On May 1 — just seven months after the companies announced their intentions — T-Mobile and MetroPCS will officially combine.
