Intel’s proposed $15.3 billion buy of Israeli-based Mobileye (see 1703130015) “kills the myth that Israelis can’t build big companies” and that Jerusalem “is not a hotbed of innovation,” said Lou Kerner, who manages Flight VC's Israeli Founders Syndicate, in a Medium.com blog post Tuesday. The Mobileye deal also “turns the world’s focus to Israel, in a highly positive way, for at least a period of time,” Kerner said. “But most importantly for the Israel tech sector, tech ecosystems, when they are humming, are virtuous circles,” he said. Israel’s tech sector “was already booming,” but the Mobileye deal “just adds more fuel to Start Up Nation’s roaring bonfire,” he said. Mobileye's deal with Intel “is unique" because instead of Mobileye being integrated into Intel, Intel's Automated Driving Group “will be integrated into Mobileye,” and will be “headquartered in Israel,” senior Mobileye management told employees Monday in announcing the deal.

Harman International shares ceased trading Monday and were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after Samsung Electronics announced Saturday it completed its $8 billion Harman buy on the fast track. The companies said in November they expected Harman/Samsung would close mid-2017 (see 1611140030). One of the last remaining hurdles to the deal was cleared when the FTC granted the transaction early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period just before Christmas (see 1612210031). Dinesh Paliwal will remain CEO at Harman, which will operate as a stand-alone subsidiary reporting to a board chaired by Young Sohn, Samsung Electronics president-chief strategy officer, Samsung said.

Altice USA bought digital advertising firm Audience Partners with the aim of expanding its TV data and addressable ads offerings, Altice said in a news release Thursday.

Dish Network completed its asset swap with EchoStar, it said in a news release Wednesday. Dish picked up EchoStar's 10 percent stake in Sling TV and wireless spectrum licenses covering four markets in the 28 GHz band, in exchange for Dish's 80 percent economic interest in Hughes Retail Group held in the form of a tracking stock (see 1701310064).

Intelsat and OneWeb joining likely would need only FCC International Bureau, not commissioner, approval, although that process still could take months, satellite lawyer and former LightSquared General Counsel Jeff Carlisle told us. He said the deal, announced Tuesday, shouldn't draw a lot of controversial comments. He said the deal doesn't seem to pose horizontal or vertical concentration issues because the two companies operate in different markets. Instead, the combination points to a breaking down of traditional telecom silos of terrestrial/low earth orbit (LEO)/geosynchronous orbit (GEO), much like AT&T/DirecTV did. "You're going to see a lot of these age-old distinctions becoming maybe a little less distinct," Carlisle said. Intelsat said it expects to deal to close in Q3, contingent on regulatory and bondholder approvals. Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said in an analyst call Tuesday that the combined company, with Intelsat's GEO system and OneWeb's planned LEO system, opens the door to their together taking a larger satellite broadband market share and doing more work in backhaul carriage, as well as new applications like connected vehicles and over-the-top video distribution. Northern Sky Research analyst Lluc Palerm told us the deal opens the door to opportunities like the joined companies working low-latency markets such as 5G and also would let startup OneWeb piggyback off the international landing rights Intelsat already has.

TV ratings measurement firm TVSquared raised an additional $6.5 million from West Coast Capital, the Scottish Investment Bank and other investors, it said in a news release Monday.

Verizon will buy Yahoo's operating business for $350 million less than Verizon's initial $4.83 billion offer and the companies "will share certain legal and regulatory liabilities arising" from the 2013 and 2014 data breaches that compromised a combined 1.5 billion Yahoo user accounts (see 1612150010), they said in a Tuesday statement. Under the amended deal, which is expected to close Q2, Yahoo will be responsible for 50 percent of cash liabilities incurred after non-SEC government investigations and third-party lawsuits related to the breaches are closed, the companies said. At least two dozen lawsuits have been filed against Yahoo after the company announced the breaches last year (see 1612230029) and lawmakers also are seeking answers (see 1702150070 and 1702100059). Yahoo would continue to be responsible for liabilities from shareholder suits and SEC probes, the news release said. The companies also agreed that the data breaches or any losses from them "will not be taken into account in determining whether a 'Business Material Adverse Effect' has occurred or whether certain closing conditions have been satisfied." Verizon Executive Vice President Marni Walden said the amended terms are "fair and favorable" for shareholders and the deal still makes "strategic sense." The company is seeking to increase its advertising business (see 1607250016). Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said the deal will "accelerate" the company's mobile operating business and separate its "Asian asset equity stakes."

Between the price and the New York divestitures that would be required, a Verizon/Charter Communications deal is not likely in the cards, Raymond James analyst Frank Louthan emailed investors Friday. The asking price could be "well north" of $400 per share, Raymond James said; the stock trades at about $320. "Recent conversations in DC with industry participants and regulators showed little enthusiasm for the deal" because of the divestitures and "a lack of strategic focus," he wrote. Charter more likely is interested in investing in its business, Raymond James said. The operator has been the subject of rumors of a combination with and possibly purchase by Verizon (see 1701260032).

The FTC cleared Cisco’s $3.7 billion acquisition of application-performance monitoring company AppDynamics, in an early termination notice released Tuesday. Cisco announced the deal last month. AppDynamics will become a software business unit in Cisco's IoT/Applications business (see 1701250060).

Japan’s SoftBank is buying global investment firm Fortress for about $3.3 billion in cash, the companies said Wednesday in a news release. SoftBank is the parent of Sprint. Fortress will continue to be run by its principals (see item in the personals section of this issue).