Dish Network has gotten a fair shake at the FCC despite the attempts of “sneaky” parties that approached the agency with “whispers” to malign the company for competitive reasons, testified Chairman Charlie Ergen at the T-Mobile/Sprint bench trial last week in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan (see 1912170068). “Incumbents don’t want us in the business,” said Ergen, not naming names. “The good news is, the sneaky companies weren’t factual and it didn’t work.” If the DOJ remedy deal goes through, Dish would compete against T-Mobile for wireless subscribers, but would need to rely on T-Mobile’s network for seven years. DOJ will assign a “monitor” to prevent “mischief” between the companies, said Ergen. “Outside of mischief, they’ll be aggressive in the marketplace,” he said of T-Mobile. Asked by Judge Victor Marrero if T-Mobile starting a price war would amount to mischief, Ergen said it would not.
Liberty Global ended discussions on combining its cable subsidiary UPC Switzerland and Swiss telco Sunrise Communications after disagreements between Sunrise's board and its largest shareholder, Liberty said Monday. It said it's focusing now on UPC's turnaround plan.
Intel acquired Habana Labs, an Israel-based developer of programmable deep learning accelerators for data centers for about $2 billion, Intel said Monday (see personals section). It said the acquisition strengthens Intel's artificial intelligence portfolio and will help energize its efforts in AI silicon, a market it predicts will top $25 billion by 2024.
AT&T is eyeing its regional sports networks and more of its real estate and towers as it looks to sell $5 billion to $10 billion in assets in 2020, it said Wednesday. It's targeting $1.5 billion in cost reductions next year through reduction of labor and corporate overhead. It expects to retire by the end of 2022 all debt it accrued buying Time Warner.
Viacom and CBS closed Wednesday to become ViacomCBS, as expected (see 1911250005). ViacomCBS "will create and deliver premium content for its own platforms and for others, while providing innovative solutions for advertisers and distributors globally," said CEO Bob Bakish.
Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt urged “rapid closing” of T-Mobile's buy of Sprint. The deal is important for developing 5G and to stop the U.S. from falling behind China, Hundt, who's advising Sprint, wrote for CNBC Monday. Trial starts Monday at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in states’ lawsuit to stop the transaction (see 1911270049). Hundt's at least the third ex-FCC member working on the deal. Tuesday, Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger scheduled a pre-hearing conference for 10:30 a.m. Friday. Parties asked to meet about “confidentiality issues that may arise at trial relating to materials on the parties’ exhibit lists that have been designated Highly Confidential Information and/or Confidential Information by the Defendants and non-parties.”
Intel completed the sale of most of its smartphone modem business to Apple for $1 billion, Intel said Monday. About 2,200 employees will leave for Apple under the midsummer deal in which Intel will keep rights to develop modems for non-smartphone applications, such as PCs, IoT devices and autonomous vehicles (see 1907250072). Intel abandoned the 5G smartphone modem business in April, saying it saw “no clear path to profitability and positive returns" (see 1904170004).
States attorneys general look likely to win against T-Mobile/Sprint, based on pretrial memos last week at U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (see 1911270049), New Street's Blair Levin wrote Monday. That’s “particularly due to weaknesses we see in the companies' market definition, reliance on economic arguments with little support in antitrust precedent, a zig-zag approach to the DOJ and FCC’s judgments, a reliance on behavioral remedies to justify the fix and a reliance on public interest considerations, such as social or industrial policy, that generally are considered irrelevant to competition analysis.” The judge could still rule the carriers' way by “fashioning his own remedies,” the analyst told investors: Texas and Nevada settled with T-Mobile last week (see 1911250050), but carriers probably won't avoid trial Monday. Odds of states and T-Mobile making a pact before trial are low, “although the company will likely be pushing hard even in the final hours before the trial starts,” wrote LightShed Partners' Walter Piecyk and Joe Galone. Tunney Act review at U.S. District Court in Washington could finish this week, the analysts said. It “would be odd” if Judge Timothy Kelly, a Donald Trump appointee, didn't clear the deal, and that approval would bolster the carriers’ case in New York, they said.
The California Public Utilities Commission will have T-Mobile/Sprint hearings Dec. 5 and 6, Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer said in a Monday email to the service list for docket A.18-07-011. The carriers said they weren’t needed despite the CPUC Public Advocates Office listing several areas of continuing dispute (see 1911250050).
Viacom's buy of CBS is expected to be effective after the market closes Dec. 4, they said Monday. ViacomCBS will trade on Nasdaq on Dec. 5 under VIACA and VIAC.