Dialog Semiconductor agreed to buy Creative Chips, a supplier of power management, charging, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy integrated circuits for the industrial IoT. Due to close in Q4, the purchase would give Dialog growth potential in the industrial market, while giving the semiconductor maker an additional portfolio of core IC products and analog, digital and RF technologies, Dialog said Monday. The cash acquisition for about $80 million has additional consideration of up to $23 million, based on 2020 and 2021 revenue targets.

T-Mobile and Sprint likely have a better chance of prevailing in the state challenge to their deal than an objective legal analysis would suggest, New Street’s Blair Levin told investors this weekend. The broader deal with DOJ includes the sale of assets to Dish Network so it can launch a wireless competitor. “Underneath the legal framework is a question that we believe the judge will constantly be asking himself: are American consumers better off in the long-run with the proposed DISH and T-Mobile business plans or are they better off with Sprint going through some kind of unspecified financial restructuring, sale of assets, and other business moves?” Levin wrote. T-Mobile CEO John Legere and Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen will be “compelling witnesses for the former,” Levin said: “To the best of our knowledge, there will not be any businesspersons arguing in detail for the latter. That asymmetry, we believe, will be a major dynamic in the trial and the key reason we see the odds as closer than traditional antitrust analysis would suggest.” A trial on the case against the deal by state attorneys general starts Dec. 9 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (see 1909300033). The FCC, meanwhile, approved a waiver Monday allowing Sprint to bid in the December auction of high-band spectrum in the upper 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands. T-Mobile earlier got a similar waiver (see 1908270033). The FCC dismissed as moot waiver requests by the two carriers and Dish of the same rules for the related asset sale agreement among the three companies. The Office of Economics and Analytics and Wireless Bureau said in docket 19-59 that waiver isn’t necessary.

Amazon bought INLT, a startup that makes customs brokerage software, said INLT. INLT was co-founded by Chris Reynolds, who also runs customs consultancy Cardinal Trade Associates and was at OHL before that.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr appears to have big concerns on the T-Mobile/Sprint deal, which involves the sale of assets to Dish Network, New Street’s Blair Levin said in a note to investors. Levin noted nine ex parte filings have been posted on T-Mobile/Sprint meetings with staff for Carr, since Chairman Ajit Pai circulated an order approving the deal. It's possible Carr's seeking a new condition, Levin said in the weekend note to investors. Carr may also be trying to “fix the item related to DISH,” he wrote. Another possibility is Carr's “seeking to fix the item to protect the reputation of the FCC who supported the merger in May while helping the companies at trial,” Levin said: “We think the fundamental problem is that the FCC majority verbally approved a deal that the DOJ and states representing a majority of the population have characterized as illegal under the Clayton Act. In that light, the FCC order has to thread the needle of justifying the views of the majority while also helping the companies at trial.” Carr didn’t comment. Levin reported Tuesday on a call with Constantine Cannon's Matthew Cantor, “one of the few lawyers who has ever tried an antitrust case before Judge Victor Marrero … who will preside over and decide the states’ challenge” to T-Mobile/Sprint. “The Judge has little experience with antitrust cases and the prior case was a jury case, which presents a different situation,” Cantor said. Marrero's also “unlikely to be active in driving a settlement” or “to be active in directing testimony,” Cantor indicated. Marrero, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is also “unlikely to let politics influence his decision,” Cantor said.

Disney received final judicial approval for its $71.3 billion buy of Fox entertainment assets, with U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon of Manhattan signing off on the docket 18-cv-05800 final judgment Monday, DOJ said Tuesday. Disney had to sell Fox regional sports networks under the consent decree, and a deal with Sinclair was completed last month (see 1908230041).

Federal policymakers are looking backward in technology assessments, observers said on a podcast emailed Friday. FAANGs -- Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google -- "are the past," said Needham & Co.'s Laura Martin Aug. 20 after moderating a panel on content (see first Notebook 1908200027) at the Technology Policy Institute in Aspen, Colorado. "They’re the past decade. They got big, now they’re being looked at. But the thing that’s going to get big based on consumer time will get ignored" by government "until it’s really, really big and hurtful." Esports and videogame dominance are rising in terms of time consumers spend there, the analyst noted. "Even Wall Street is just coming to grips with this, which means it’s probably three years in the future." CNBC's Brian Sullivan, who earlier that day spoke with DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim, noted government "isn’t the fastest moving entity." That mantra could be "move slow and break things," responded podcast moderator and TPI President Scott Wallsten. DOJ didn't comment and the FTC declined to comment now. While media companies are focused on over the top video, they may be missing out on the rise of esports popularity, especially among those younger than 25, Martin said in an interview Friday. "They’re not even watching TV," she said of that demographic. Scrutinizing advertising-based incumbent platforms means "government is late," Martin told us. "All those monopolists are going to compete with each other, they are going to put each other out of business. The government doesn’t need to." Policymaker views tend to look "backwards, but only a few years. They seem to have no historical perspective," Wallsten emailed us Friday. "It's difficult to know how to look forward since nobody can predict the future, but they do seem inclined to believe that the present is forever despite being much different than even a few years ago."

Spotify bought SoundBetter, a music production market, it said Thursday. It's part an effort to invest in tools that help creators produce better-sounding content, expand audience and have an opportunity to live off their work, Spotify said. SoundBetter will help provide insights, profile management and promotion tools to 400,000-plus artists, it said.

Dish Network closed on its acquisition of EchoStar's broadcast satellite services business, said EchoStar Tuesday. The $809 million stock deal was announced in May (see 1905200003).

RDX closed on its buy of Charter Communications' managed cloud services Navisite (see 1908260005), they said Monday.

The FCC should seek comment on new developments in T-Mobile buying Sprint, including Dish Network’s waiver request and the DOJ consent decree, said the Communications Workers of America, Public Knowledge, New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and Consumer Reports to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly Thursday, per a filing posted Monday in docket 18-197. “Given the extraordinary nature of these developments, failure to seek public comment on these inextricably interrelated developments would be a violation of the” Administrative Procedure Act, the groups said. “The DOJ Consent Decree and the DISH waiver and extension requests represent significant changes to the original transaction and raise new and important public interest and competition issues.” Attorneys for T-Mobile had calls about the deal Wednesday and Thursday with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr, in response to questions from that office, said a filing. It described the conversations only as referencing the draft order and concerned with “several issues raised in the Applicants’ previous submissions and relevant to the Commission’s public interest and competition.”