Telecom industry M&A activity had a big bounce in 2021, with deal value up 48% from the year before, Bain & Co. said Tuesday. Scale deals, such as in-country consolidation, were the bulk of telecom M&A, it said, noting Rogers Communications' $21 billion acquisition of Shaw Communications. Infrastructure M&A, especially of tower and fiber assets, "is skyrocketing," it said. It predicted ongoing scale deals in Latin America and Asia-Pacific and particularly growth in Europe. It said a "potential hot area" for scale acquisitions is maturing fiber alternative network assets. It said there could be a wave of fiber altnet consolidation "reminiscent of the cable roll-ups" popular 20 years ago, due to abundant capital, overbuilds and incumbents wanting growth.

Nvidia and SoftBank agreed to terminate Nvidia’s proposed $40 billion Arm buy “because of significant regulatory challenges preventing the consummation of the transaction,” said the companies Tuesday. Arm will now start preparations for an initial public offering to be completed during the fiscal year ending March 2023, said SoftBank. Under their September 2020 transaction agreement, SoftBank will pocket Nvidia’s $1.25 billion prepayment and record it as fiscal Q4 profit, and Nvidia will keep its 20-year Arm license. The FTC sued Dec. 2 to block Nvidia’s Arm buy, saying the combined firm would “stifle competing next-generation technologies” (see 2112030002). An agency spokesperson declined comment Tuesday.

AT&T's board OK'd spinning off WarnerMedia as part of a $43 billion transaction between Discovery and Warner (see 2105160003), AT&T said Tuesday. It said the deal is expected to close in Q2, and after close, Warner Bros. Discovery stock will likely be listed by Nasdaq. AT&T CEO John Stankey said the spinoff is "simple, efficient and results in AT&T shareholders owning shares of both companies, each of which will have the ability to drive better returns in a manner consistent with their respective market opportunities." AT&T stock closed at $24.42, down 4.2%, as the company also announced it's cutting the annual dividend by 47%, to $1.11, after the spinoff.

Walmart and Ribbit Capital’s financial tech company, Hazel, signed definitive agreements to acquire fintech platforms Even and One, marking the startup’s emergence from “stealth mode,” Hazel said Wednesday. Expected to close in first half 2022, pending approvals, the transactions will give the combined business, to be branded One, “immediate momentum” toward delivering a single financial services app that will allow consumers to “get paid, spend, save, borrow and grow their money,” Hazel said. About 80% of fintech users rely on multiple accounts to manage their finances, it said: One will let users “holistically manage their finances in one place.” Omer Ismail will lead One; David Baga, Even CEO, and One co-founder Brian Hamilton will remain in key leadership roles, it said. Upon closing, the combined business will have more than 200 employees and be capitalized with $250 million to fund future growth, it said. Over time, the One app will be integrated into Walmart’s physical and digital channels, with access to the retailer’s 1.6 million U.S. associates and 100 million-plus weekly shoppers. The stand-alone company and One app will be available directly to U.S. consumers and through partnerships with other employers and merchants, Hazel said.

J.P. Morgan will pay an undisclosed sum for a 49% interest in Viva Wallet, the European cloud-based payments platform that serves small and midsize businesses in 23 countries, said J.P. Morgan Tuesday. “The European payments landscape is fragmented yet large in terms of opportunity, with more than 17 million merchants ready to implement scalable payments solutions,” it said. J.P. Morgan recently rebranded its U.S. business for SMB payments as Chase Payment Solutions, “and the strategic investment in Viva Wallet will set the stage to develop future international products and services across European SMBs,” it said.

DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Jonathan Kanter worries that “merger remedies short of blocking a transaction too often miss the mark,” he told the New York State Bar Association virtually Monday. “Complex settlements, whether behavioral or structural, suffer from significant deficiencies.” When the Antitrust Division decides a deal is likely to lessen competition, “in most situations we should seek a simple injunction to block the transaction,” he said. “It is the surest way to preserve competition.” DOJ must give “full weight to the benefits of preserving competition that already exists in a market, rather than predicting whether a divestiture will actually serve to keep a market competitive,” said Kanter. “That will often mean that we cannot accept anything less than an injunction blocking the merger.” His division “will pursue remedies that are forward-looking in nature, especially in dynamic markets,” he said. “We will pursue remedies -- not settlements. We cannot compromise if there is a violation of the law.”

Snap One bought Staub Electronics, its Canadian distribution partner for the past 10 years, it said Thursday. The acquisition will bring Snap One a wider product range, faster order turnaround and same-day pickup capability for customers, said CEO John Heyman.

Judging from Tuesday’s nearly 13% decline in Sony’s stock price after Microsoft announced its $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard buy, “the market appears to have come to the conclusion that the deal announcement destroyed roughly as much value at Sony as it created at Microsoft-Activision,” said a Cowen investor note Wednesday. “The market is saying that Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard would reduce the value of Sony's PlayStation business by about 60%,” it said. “We think that Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard would be a significant negative for Sony, given the likely eventual loss of access to new releases in the Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Diablo franchises. On the other hand, we really don't think it would be negative to the tune of cutting the value of their PlayStation business by more than half.” The preliminary signals Microsoft put out for public consumption Tuesday suggested Sony would experience no disruption in its access to Activision content support for the PS5 (see 2201180009). Sony shares fell another 5% Wednesday, closing at $110.04.

Virtual shopping mobile app Salesfloor acquired Automat, a Montreal-based conversational AI platform that powers guided shopping experiences, product recommendations and personalization for brands, it said Thursday. Retailers want platforms that can help manage in-store and online shoppers to offer more unified and seamless shopping experiences, said Salesfloor CEO Oscar Sachs, saying the acquisition lets the company provide a mix of human store associates and AI-assistant capabilities.

SiriusXM bought Cloud Cover Media, a provider of ad-free music-for-business services, it said Thursday. It will add Cloud Cover Music to a “portfolio” that already includes SiriusXM and Pandora music-for-businesses offerings.