The outlook for T-Mobile closing its Sprint buy remains in question, despite a report last week that U.S. regulators are now comfortable with three national wireless carriers rather than four, New Street Research emailed investors Sunday. Others report antitrust chief Makan Delrahim and other DOJ officials believe the market demands “at least three” carriers, New Street said. If Justice believed three carriers is enough, “it would have been a clear plus for the deal,” the firm said. “The odds favor the deal being rejected because some combination of staff competition concerns, White House political concerns, and state attorney generals’ litigation will mortally wound the deal’s chances,” New Street said. “Odds have benefitted from an excellent roll out by the companies, mooted congressional opposition, and to date, no significant business opposition.” DOJ didn't comment.

Cox Communications' commercial division bought cloud services provider RapidScale, it announced Thursday. Terms weren't disclosed. Cox said the deal beefs up its managed services portfolio.

The FTC announced a new model timing agreement for Bureau of Competition merger reviews, which dictates investigation milestone timelines. The model timing agreement means parties “agree not to close the proposed transaction until 60 to 90 calendar days following certification of substantial compliance with the Second Request [Request for Additional Information and Documentary Material] depending on the complexity of the competition issues raised by the deal,” Competition Chief Bruce Hoffman blogged Tuesday. The model also requires parties to “provide 30 calendar days’ notice before certifying substantial compliance with the Second Request, and 30 calendar days’ notice before consummating the proposed transaction,” Hoffman said.

Sinclair Executive Chairman David Smith met Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., within 24 hours of President Donald Trump's tweet last week criticizing the FCC decision to issue a hearing designation order on Sinclair's proposed purchase of Tribune, Thune told reporters Wednesday. Trump's tweet angered Democratic lawmakers but is considered unlikely to influence FCC policy (see 1807250057). “Obviously, they aren't happy with the outcome they got from the FCC, but it is what it is,” Thune said. Smith wasn't asking Senate Commerce Republicans to intervene on Sinclair's behalf but “was more just expressing their displeasure with how the process worked,” the senator said. Smith also was planning to meet with some House members about his concerns with FCC handling of Sinclair/Tribune, Thune said. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., is collecting signatures on a letter to be sent to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asking him to reconsider the HDO, which Harris called a “de facto death sentence.” Sinclair didn't comment.

With four responses in April, May, June and July, DOJ's Antitrust Division fully responded to Protect Democracy Project's (PDP) Freedom of Information Act requests on release of White House/agency communications about AT&T's Time Warner purchase (see 1803060004), said a docket 17-cv-02409 status report (in Pacer) Tuesday with U.S. District Court in Washington. Justice's Office of Information and Privacy anticipates one more Aug. 31, with parties discussing what proceedings will then remain, it said. PDP also sued over a similar request on Disney/Fox assets.

Vonage bought from Telefonica in a $35 million deal TokBox, for integrating live video into websites, mobile apps and IoT devices. It "brings a workforce of skilled technologists," said Vonage CEO Alan Masarek Wednesday. His company cited IDC forecasts the U.S. programmable video market will more than double by 2022 to about $7 billion.

Sony paid Michael Jackson’s estate $287.5 million for the 25.1 percent stake in Nile Acquisition that it didn’t previously own, said Sony Tuesday. Nile owns 40 percent of EMI Music Publishing, which Sony will make a subsidiary after it buys the majority share from a Mubadala Investment consortium under a definitive agreement announced June 29, it said.

AT&T may not stumble integrating Time Warner's HBO as part of buying TW, Needham & Co.'s Laura Martin told Technology Policy Institute President Scott Wallsten. Asked by the TPI head on a podcast if AT&T is "going to be able to work with HBO," the board member of the group replied yes: But "there are going to be big cultural differences. The culture at Time Warner was very much autonomous, autonomy. I think AT&T is a little more buttoned up and centralized." Offsetting that is that AT&T reportedly wants "to give HBO more money to have more series," she continued. "That’s a good idea." She noted HBO spends about $3 billion in the U.S. on content annually, versus Netflix's $12 billion globally. "It’s fair to say Netflix is becoming a dominant member of the content creation community," spending more than CBS, Disney and NBC combined, the analyst said in a taping July 17 emailed Monday night. "By that definition, they are definitely a dominant player in the content creation business. When you look at Emmys, and they just did surpass HBO for the first time I think in seven years. ... So you would hope that if you spend four times as much that you can have just as many Emmys." Netflix was nominated for 112, HBO for 108, Wallsten and Martin said. What "remains to be seen" is whether the streaming video provider can form a culture that encourages high-quality content creation, Martin said. "These cultures that hold on for long periods of time to the most talented people are just really rarefied air in terms of being hands off and hands on simultaneously, and having a lot of creative people around to rub shoulders with and collaborate with. So Netflix has to prove out that it can create and maintain a studio system so people are on the payroll." HBO's spending of $2 billion to $3 billion annually on content is for what it makes in or for the U.S. and sells worldwide, Martin told us Tuesday. The unit was part of TW before the parent's sale to AT&T. Netflix's $12 billion of spending forecast for 2018 includes money for local content in the U.S., France and Latin America, she said. Also Tuesday, AT&T and Netflix didn't comment.

AMC Networks, boosting a February bid, agreed to buy over-the-top programmer RLJ Entertainment in a deal worth about $274 million, with OK of RLJ founder-Chairman Robert Johnson, who with affiliates will own 17 percent. RLJ's Acorn TV, with British and international content, and UMC -- or Urban Movie Channel, the first subscription VOD service for African-Americans -- have about 800,000 subscribers total, AMC said Monday. The companies in 2016 formed a partnership with the bigger cable programmer investing $65 million. The takeover “furthers AMC Networks’ digital strategy by meaningfully accelerating our interests in direct-to-consumer ad-free subscription services that we own and control, in addition to providing us with access to strong IP as we continue to diversify our revenue opportunities," said AMC CEO Josh Sapan.

Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C., is collecting colleagues’ signatures on a letter he plans to send this week to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin voicing national security concerns about T-Mobile buying Sprint. Japan-based Softbank, with majority ownership of Sprint, has a “documented history of working with Huawei, a major Chinese telecom company, widely known to pose cyber threats,” Pittenger said. T-Mobile/Sprint “would increase telecommunications risks associated with third-party foreign entities, including Huawei, being utilized in the development of U.S. 5G infrastructure” partly on a November Softbank-Huawei 5G deployment agreement. Sprint didn't “address serious security concerns,” including not abiding its 2013 agreement to replace Huawei equipment in its network after the Softbank/Sprint and Sprint/Clearwire (see 1304010074), Pittenger wrote. Sprint has "a strong record of compliance with the National Security Agreement," a spokeswoman said. "We spent more than $200 million replacing network gear that was deployed in the Clearwire network that Sprint acquired in 2013. Sprint has been a trusted partner of the U.S. government and the agencies that monitor the Sprint/SoftBank NSA have been complimentary of compliance." T-Mobile didn’t comment.