Google will buy Looker, a “unified platform for business intelligence, data applications and embedded analytics,” for $2.6 billion cash, it said Thursday. Google will incorporate Looker into Google Cloud when the transaction is complete later this year, it said. This will help "offer customers a more complete analytics solution from ingesting data to visualizing results and integrating data and insights into their daily workflows,” blogged Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian.

Altice closed on its $200 million acquisition of news company Cheddar (see report, May 1), it said Thursday. It said Cheddar founder and CEO Jon Steinberg will be president of Altice News, overseeing Cheddar, News 12 and i24News. Altice CEO Dexter Goei said the deal is a big step toward being "a news leader by offering a full range of hyperlocal, national, business and international news across digital, mobile and linear TV formats."

Amazon, or one of the big cable companies, may emerge as the elusive fourth wireless carrier, to satisfy DOJ concerns about T-Mobile's buying Sprint (see 1905300058), analysts said Friday. “We do not have an interest in acquiring divested spectrum from the Sprint/T-Mobile transaction,” a Comcast spokesperson said. “We don’t comment on rumors and speculation,” an Amazon spokesperson said. Analysts cited reports such players are scoping Boost, which the companies agreed to sell (see 1905200051) to get FCC clearance. Other divestitures could be forced by DOJ. Agreement is possible, New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told us Friday. “It will be a complicated negotiation, but there should be a deal that works for everyone.” Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim “would like to approve the deal, but he has a memo from his staff highlighting competitive harms and he has 17 state [attorneys general] threatening to sue if he does approve the deal,” Chaplin said: “The easiest path forward for him would be finding concessions that address the harms and undercut a case by the state AGs. Establishing a credible fourth competitor would be the perfect solution.” Chaplin said cable will get in anyway. “They will buy spectrum,” he said: “They would also love a better [mobile virtual network operator] MVNO than they have now, one that gives them core network control.” While prospects Amazon might jump into the wireless business have caused market jitters, the threat is limited, said Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche. “Spectrum is the life blood of a wireless network -- and while [Amazon] could buy some spectrum divestitures if required to get this done -- it is impossible for us to see how it will amass the necessary spectrum to mirror that of the wireless incumbents,” she told investors. “That the DOJ has forced T-Mobile to contemplate such a transaction suggests the DOJ has signaled that without such a deal, it will file a complaint,” New Street’s Blair Levin told investors. “How much T-Mobile is willing to give up to proceed," he asked. Negotiations are likely just getting started and there are some big questions, Levin said. “We don’t know whether Cable or Amazon are seriously interested or want to see what might be available now or, if the deal doesn’t go forward, from Sprint in the future. ... We don’t know if the Cable players are willing to agree to the terms of a joint venture necessary to make the new entrant a national player.” Barclays' Kannan Venkateshwar noted analysts there have made the case for “convergence between the application layer and the network layer … where we had argued that over the long term, there was a high likelihood of companies such as Amazon and Google getting into wireless.” Amazon and Google are testing in some bands, including the citizens broadband radio service band, Barclays said.

Boost Mobile as a stand-alone business wouldn't be a meaningful competitor, so Sprint's promised divestiture (see 1905200004) won't reduce the anticompetitive impact of T-Mobile/Sprint on prepaid wireless customers as Sprint claims it would, said Dish Network Thursday in FCC docket 18-197. It produced what it said was an internal Sprint document with heavy redactions that "directly contradicts" Sprint's public statements assuring that the Boost divestiture would remove any competitive doubts. Friday, Sprint didn't comment. A variety of groups told FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks' office that T-Mobile/Sprint will cost jobs (see 1905240026) while a number of Senate Democrats are urging the FCC and DOJ to deny the deal (see 1905230071).

IHS Markit will transfer most of its technology, media and telecom research operations to Informa in return for latter’s “aribusiness intelligence group,” said the companies Wednesday. IHS will keep its RootMetrics “benchmarking” operation, they said. The deal is expected to close in July.

Rumors swirl that DOJ could part ways with the FCC and end up blocking T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint (see 1905210038). Lawyers involved in the proceeding said reports about DOJ concerns could be real or just Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim adding to his leverage in negotiations with the two companies. DOJ didn't comment Wednesday. Approval is now a “coin toss,” New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors Wednesday after a colleague earlier gave it an 80 percent likelihood. “DOJ could take two paths: they could sue to block the deal, or they could seek additional conditions to those agreed between the parties and the FCC,” Chaplin said. In the midst of uncertainty, he downgraded Sprint to neutral. That company is “precarious, with upside to $10 [share] if the deal is approved and downside to $2, and ultimately to $0, if blocked,” Chaplin said. T-Mobile revealed Wednesday that CEO John Legere spoke with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Sunday, the day before the release of his statement endorsing the deal. Legere spoke with Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O’Rielly on Monday, said a filing in docket 18-197. The FCC has “done the heavy lifting” on conditions and support in Congress is bipartisan, said a lawyer working for the deal: “Now, it is a short putt to get the ball into the 18th hole." Others were heartened by reports that DOJ might say no. “The public record is clear that permitting T-Mobile to acquire Sprint will harm consumers and substantially reduce competition and innovation in the wireless market,” said Phillip Berenbroick, senior policy counsel at Public Knowledge: “This transaction is not even a close call under the DOJ’s prior precedents and Section 7 of the Sherman Act, and the Department of Justice should file suit to block the deal.” Sprint shares closed down 7.6 percent at $6.67 on Wednesday. That's a wider discount to the per-share takeover price than earlier this week when Pai announced he would vote "yes" on the deal.

Dish Network is buying EchoStar's broadcast satellite service business for roughly $809 million of Dish stock, Dish said Monday. The deal includes nine direct broadcast satellites and some EchoStar personnel as well as licensing for an orbital slot, Dish said, adding that it expects the buy to lead to operational efficiencies and improved cash flow. It said the transaction is expected to close in the second half of the year, assuming regulatory approvals. The satellites involved are EchoStar VII, EchoStar X, EchoStar XI, EchoStar XII, EchoStar XIV, EchoStar XVI, EchoStar XXIII, Nimiq 5 and QuetzSat-1, it said. EchoStar said the transaction will let it focus its efforts on its growing satellite broadband business while shedding "the risk associated with providing services to a solitary customer."

Hewlett Packard Enterprise agreed to buy supercomputer maker Cray in a deal worth roughly $1.3 billion. “Answers to some of society’s most pressing challenges are buried in massive amounts of data,” said HPE CEO Antonio Neri on Friday. High performance computing and "associated storage and services is expected to grow from approximately $28 billion in 2018 to approximately $35 billion in 2021," the buyer said Friday. Simon Leopold of Raymond James asked if the companies are what he called an odd couple, "given the differing business profiles of both companies with HPE focused primarily on commercial and enterprise markets, and Cray primarily focused on academic and industrial supercomputing applications." Artificial intelligence/machine learning and big data analytics "continue to see exponential growth, with businesses still scratching the surface of the different potential use cases," he wrote investors. "Management’s vision is sound." The deal is expected to close in fiscal Q1 ending Jan. 31, an HPE spokesperson emailed us. "The deal is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval." Cray closed up $1.52 higher than the deal's per-share price. It rose 23 percent to $36.52. The deal price excludes Cray's own cash.

T-Mobile and Sprint representatives met with FCC officials Thursday to discuss conditions on their proposed deal, industry officials confirmed Friday. While the two carriers have been at the FCC many times in the year since the proposal was announced, industry observers have been waiting for signs that conditions were on the table. “For the first time since the merger announcement, we see signs that the prospects for federal approval of the T-Mobile/Sprint deal improving,” New Street’s Blair Levin told investors Friday. “Normally, companies seeking to merge usually try to obtain a sign-off from the DOJ first and would not go to the FCC unless they have a high level of comfort that the DOJ is conceptually on board with approval and a framework for conditions.” A second possibility, less likely, is the companies are seeking FCC approval apart from any decision by DOJ, Levin said.

CEO John Legere and others from T-Mobile argued for the company’s buy of Sprint in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-197. The executives said the company’s “world-leading 5G network will cover the country and deliver transformative services to all Americans, including those on prepaid and Lifeline plans.” They said "the massive capacity and lower costs of the network will result in lower prices for consumers and opportunities for MVNOs.” An accompanying presentation said without the transaction, in 2024, T-Mobile’s network will be “broad and thin,” Sprint’s “deep but narrow.” Together, the network will be “broad and deep.” The 4Competition Coalition, meanwhile, opposed the transaction in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “This merger would consolidate the nation’s wireless market from four to just three carriers, lead to price increases for virtually all wireless customers, substantially raise wholesale rates, and cause significant job losses -- all while failing to deliver the promised benefits of accelerated 5G deployment or expanded rural coverage,” the group said. Representatives of the Communications Workers of America, Consumer Reports, Dish Network, Incompas, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Next Century Cities and Writers Guild of America West attended. Legere blogged Wednesday that the new T-Mobile will be good for business customers, who haven’t benefited from changes in wireless pricing. “Two-year service contracts, bill shock, data buckets, overage penalties, and so many more punitive practices” are still common, Legere said. “Millions of businesses are still on a two-year service contract … and even more are still on limited data buckets. Worse, the Carriers’ pricing for businesses is still a secret, so you have no idea if you’re getting a good deal or getting screwed (pro tip: you’re probably getting screwed).”