Opponents of Sinclair’s buy of Tribune protested the FCC commissioners’ meeting Thursday (see 1807120033) and were joined by a panel truck across the street bearing a giant video screen showing footage critical of Sinclair from the HBO show Last Week Tonight, Media Matters and sports website Deadspin. The protest was a joint effort from numerous opponents of the deal, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Common Cause, Free Press and Demand Progress, and was timed with the delivery of 670,000 petitions urging the FCC to reject the transaction, Free Press said. “With Sinclair’s long history of using mergers to abandon localism and diversity in this way, the Commission must deny Sinclair’s proposed acquisition here if it intends to uphold its own public interest goals of promoting localism and diversity in broadcasting,” CEO Craig Aaron said. Although groups opposing Sinclair/Tribune electronically submitted their petitions opposing the deal to the FCC, a small group of people against the takeover gathered outside commissioners' meeting. One we briefly spoke with had a sign saying #StopSinclair; another was carrying boxes of what appeared to be the physical petitions. The combining TV station owners continue countering attacks on their divestiture plans, local news broadcasts and scale, as they seek FCC OK (see 1807060033).

Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and three other senators urged the DOJ Antitrust Division Wednesday to review Comcast's bid for Fox's nonbroadcast assets to consider whether “the heightened risk of consumer harms” of the proposal is “exacerbated by [Comcast's] history of practices after its acquisition of NBCUniversal and its unique market position.” Fox's board voted last month to accept Disney's revised offer for the assets instead in part because Comcast/Fox "would be subject to a greater degree of regulatory uncertainty, including the possibility of an outright prohibition and a higher risk of divestitures and delay to closing, as compared to a strategic transaction with Disney” (see 1806200015 and 1806260038). DOJ already said it would allow Disney/Fox if Disney divests 22 Fox regional sports networks (see 1806270032). “In addition to horizontal concerns over local stations and regional sports programming, further consolidation that enhances and reinforces Comcast’s vertically integrated status as both a distributor and creator of media poses unique challenges, especially given that the merger would provide a majority stake in the streaming service Hulu,” Blumenthal and the other senators said in a letter to DOJ Antitrust head Makan Delrahim. Also signing the letter were Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. “The need to protect consumers from the harmful effects of the proposed merger is evident in the numerous settlements with Comcast regarding past anticompetitive practices, such as the use of channel listings to prioritize its content over that of outside competitors and overbilling of customers,” the senators said. DOJ didn't comment. Meanwhile, Comcast raised its bid for Sky, which Fox owns much of (see 1807120001), while the U.S. programmer got the U.K. nod to buy the rest of the satellite-TV provider.

Fox and Sky will find out Thursday if the U.K. culture secretary will approve the Fox's proposed buy of Sky. Fox, in a bidding war with Comcast for Sky, said Wednesday it upped its offer to 14 British pounds ($18.49) per share, which Sky's independent committee accepted. It said the deal hinges on that regulatory OK. Fox expects to close on Sky in Q3. Comcast is likely to lose its bid for Fox's non-broadcast assets and focus its takeover efforts on the bidding war with Fox for Sky, now that Fox has sweetened its bid, New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin wrote investors. He said of the various assets in the Fox portfolio, Sky would be most strategically important in Comcast's eyes. Comcast didn't comment. Sky's independent committee had recommended Comcast's April offer, which exceeded Fox's initial offer (see 1804260008).

AT&T's buying privately held cybersecurity firm AlienVault will combine AlienVault’s “expertise in threat intelligence” with AT&T’s “cybersecurity solutions portfolio,” said the acquiring company Tuesday. After closing in Q3, AT&T business customers “will be able to access our unified security management platform that helps make organizations more effective at threat detection and response, by giving them access to a broad set of enterprise-grade security capabilities,” said the telco. Terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed.

Fox shareholders are being asked to vote on a deal with Disney without having all material information, a Fox shareholder alleged in a proposed class-action lawsuit (in Pacer, docket 18-cv-01007-UNA) filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, against Fox. Plaintiff Robert Weiss said the Fox proxy statement recommending a "yes" vote doesn't include Fox financial projections that were used by the company's financial advisers, Goldman Sachs and Centerview Partners; data and inputs underlying their financial valuation analyses; and Goldman's potential conflicts of interest. Also named as defendants were all board members. The Fox shareholder vote is scheduled for July 27. Tuesday, a Fox spokesman said the suit is "frivolous."

AT&T's Randall Stephenson, Comcast's Brian Roberts and Disney's Bob Iger could potentially be the media company CEO who leads the industry through coming turbulent changes, S&P Global reported Monday to investors. It said the chief previously most likely to fill that role was Time Warner's Jeff Bewkes, but AT&T's buy of TW ended that. S&P said while all three are from "old school" companies, new media company executives seem more interested "in disrupting the established order than leading it." It said AT&T, Comcast and Disney are pursuing acquisition strategies to significantly expand their brands, geographic reach and content. The ratings firm said Comcast has yet to fully spell out its proposed future as a media giant. It said Disney could be most disruptive depending on how fast it delinks ESPN from the traditional pay-TV ecosystem, while despite little experience with content, AT&T has an "ambitious global media agenda." The firm said scale is key to media survival, and with those companies having made sizable moves, the rest of the industry should follow.

Onkyo & Pioneer is selling assets for the Pioneer, Onkyo, Integra, Teac and Esoteric brands in Europe to accessories distributor Aqipa in a deal valued at $164 million, it said Tuesday. The agreement, effective Oct. 1, includes sales, marketing, after-sales service, customer care, finance, spare parts and distribution. Susumu Shiotsuka, president, Pioneer & Onkyo Europe, said the sale will allow the company to focus on development, production and brand-building. The sale has “zero impact on Onkyo USA,” which CEO Jason Sausto bought in September, a company spokesman emailed us.

The FTC is offering merger review early termination notices through a web application programming interface endpoint, said the agency Thursday: The API endpoint lets developers "show real-time or historical data on websites, mobile apps, or other computer programs.”

Fox shareholders are to vote July 27 on whether to accept Disney's raised bid for Fox's nonbroadcast assets (see 1806200015), Fox said Thursday. The Fox board is urging acceptance of the bid, which DOJ would allow with a divestiture (see 1806270032). Comcast, which has been in a bidding war with Disney, didn't comment Friday.

AT&T said it's buying AppNexus, an internet advertising company. “AT&T is investing to accelerate the growth of its advertising platform and strengthen its leadership in advanced TV advertising,” the carrier said Monday. “AppNexus has an experienced management team and employee base that includes more than 400 software engineers and product managers. This team brings leadership and vertical expertise in machine learning and predictive analytics, advertising technology and video.” The ISP expects the deal to close in Q3.