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.

Eutelsat is considering making an offer for Inmarsat, it said Monday. Inmarsat didn't comment. Some expect EchoStar to make another run at buying Inmarsat (see 1806110035).

Liberty Media withdrew its proposal to buy a portion of iHeartMedia “after reviewing results which were below expectations and negatively impacted our initial estimates of value,” Liberty said Friday. The offer was reportedly $1.8 billion for 40 percent of the company. “We remain open to future discussions as iHeart proceeds with its reorganization,” the release said. Liberty didn't comment further and iHeart didn’t comment.

T-Mobile and Sprint asked the FCC for a declaratory ruling that “it would not serve the public interest to prohibit indirect foreign ownership of T-Mobile and its subsidiaries of up to 100 percent.” The two filed a petition for declaratory ruling in docket 18-197 as part of the process for T-Mobile’s planned buy of Sprint (see 1806190062). “On multiple occasions in previous granted declaratory rulings, the FCC has repeatedly approved 100 percent indirect ownership in T-Mobile and its wholly owned subsidiaries by T-Mobile’s ultimate parent, Deutsche Telekom,” they said. The FCC has authorized similar ownership of Sprint by Japan’s SoftBank, they said: “No new foreign entities are being introduced as a result of this transaction."

Following AT&T's buy of Time Warner, more M&A and vertical integration of access and content businesses "appears inevitable" thanks both to the domino effect of such large M&A deals and to the fact mature markets have reached saturation in penetration levels for pay TV, internet and wireless, Northern Sky Research (NSR) analyst Carlos Placido blogged Sunday. He said the scope of New AT&T, with no regulatory conditions and given the recent modifications to net neutrality, "is worrisome" due to the possibility of competitive market access governed by prioritization agreements. He said satellite operators could end up losing bargaining power when negotiating space segment lease contracts with fewer, more-concentrated players. And he said key internet-era issues still to be hammered out include what antitrust means in the context of cross-industry and cross-sector deals.

T-Mobile/Sprint didn't file by our deadline Monday their application to the FCC to combine (see 1806150040). T-Mobile plans to buy Sprint in a $59 billion deal, unveiled April 29 (see 1804290001). Friday, the Wireless Bureau created a docket on the transaction, 18-197, and issued a protective order for confidential information that will be filed as part of the commission’s review. “While we are mindful of the sensitive nature of some of the information involved, we are also mindful of the general right of the public, and our desire for the public, to participate in this proceeding in a meaningful way,” the protective order said. “Allowing limited access to competitively sensitive materials pursuant to the procedures set forth in this Protective Order allows the public (through appropriate representatives) to do so while also protecting competitively sensitive information from improper disclosure and use.” The agency Monday posted a Thursday letter to the FCC by T-Mobile and Sprint, asking that the docket be opened and the protective order granted. Lawyers on the filing were Nancy Victory of DLA Piper for T-Mobile and Regina Keeney of Lawler Metzger for Sprint.

T-Mobile and Sprint are expected to file their application to combine at the FCC Monday, industry officials said. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the application will receive careful review. “Once that application and any other necessary paperwork is submitted, Commission staff will thoroughly review the transaction to determine whether granting the application will comply with the requirements of the Communications Act and serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity,” Pai wrote. Meanwhile, T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted Friday he's headed east to spend time in Washington. T-Mobile didn't comment.

While not dead, the theory of must-have video programming isn't doing so well before judges or the FCC, video lawyer Paul Feldman of Fletcher Heald blogged Thursday, citing the U.S. District Court rejecting DOJ's attempt to block AT&T buying Time Warner (see 1806120060). The must-have programming notion was central to DOJ's case and the court's decision "may be the final blow" to a theory that already was dying from recent changes in the video market such as online distribution of diverse and smaller programming packages, he wrote. He said the FCC also has shown itself unlikely to inject itself into the issue of programmer/distributor negotiations. AT&T said Thursday it had closed on its TW purchase (see personals section of this publication).

In Tyson Tuttle’s six years as Silicon Labs CEO, “I think we’ve done seven acquisitions, all around IoT,” he told a Stifel investment conference Wednesday. The Z-Wave buy from Sigma Designs that Silicon Labs completed in April for $240 million in cash (see 1804180064) “was the largest one that we’ve done,” said Tuttle. Like the six previous acquisitions under his watch, Silicon Labs pursued Z-Wave with the purpose of “building up this core platform around IoT,” he said. “That’s been, I think, a very successful set of acquisitions, and we’re starting to see the results of that in the growth of the IoT business.” After the Z-Wave buy, “we have about $525 million in the bank” and about $300 million in available credit, “and so we have the ability to continue to be active on the M&A front,” said Tuttle. In any new acquisition targets, “we’ll continue to focus on the IoT area, and if there’s something that makes sense there, we certainly have the ability to go for it,” he said. “But it has to be culturally aligned, strategically aligned, and it needs to be accretive to the bottom line at the same time.”

Though Inmarsat said last week it rejected a preliminary takeover offer from EchoStar, the latter is likely still interested in mergers and acquisitions and Inmarsat makes a good strategic fit, Citigroup's Jason Bazinet wrote investors Monday: That EchoStar is pursuing M&A (according to Inmarsat) isn't surprising because it has repeatedly indicated an interest. The analyst said the strategic benefits for EchoStar of such a deal -- global satellite coverage, cost synergies and creation of an IoT network that uses both satellite and terrestrial spectrum -- are numerous, though financial benefits are hazier. EchoStar didn't comment.