Sprint said Monday it's buying one-third of Tidal, the streaming-music service controlled by rapper Jay Z. “JAY Z and the artist-owners will continue to run TIDAL’s artist-centric service as it pioneers and grows the direct relationship between artists and fans,” Sprint said in a news release. “The formidable pairing of Sprint and TIDAL will grow customers on both platforms by offering exclusive access for customers who subscribe to TIDAL.” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure will join the Tidal board, the carrier said.
Liberty Media wrapped up its acquisition of Formula One, with former DirecTV CEO Chase Carey named CEO and chairman, Liberty said in a news release Monday. Bernie Ecclestone, who had been Formula One CEO, became chairman emeritus, Liberty Media said. "There is an enormous opportunity to grow the sport," Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said. Liberty Media was once the single largest shareholder of DirecTV. Liberty Media said its Liberty Media Group will be renamed the Formula One Group, and the ticker symbols for the Series A, Series B and Series C Liberty Media Group tracking stocks will similarly change this week. Formula One will remain based in London and Maffei will be deputy chairman. The deal was announced last fall (see 1609080031).
AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson met Thursday with President-elect Donald Trump but didn't talk about the company's planned $108.7 billion buy of Time Warner, the telco said in a statement. "Rather, as the country’s leading investor of capital for each of the last five years, the conversation focused on how AT&T can work with the Trump administration to increase investment in the U.S., stimulate job creation in America, and make American companies more competitive globally." The Trump transition team didn't comment on the specifics of the meeting but said such meetings between Trump and business leaders generally have been about job creation and regulatory barriers to growth and expansion. Trump has said he opposes the deal on media consolidation grounds (see 1610220002).
ThreeSixty Group, licensor of The Sharper Image brand since 2008, said in a Friday announcement it acquired the brand from Iconix Brand Group. Terms weren't disclosed. ThreeSixty Group said it understands the power of the Sharper Image brand and plans to increase its investments in product development, design and marketing “while exploring expanding into new categories and geographies” to reach the brand’s full potential. ThreeSixty designs, manufactures and distributes consumer products to retailers representing 70,000 retail stores in the U.S. It bought FAO Schwarz in October. The company’s portfolio of owned and licensed brands also includes Blue Hat Toy, Black Series, Discovery Kids, Smithsonian and Animal Planet. Along with the Sharper Image acquisition, ThreeSixty established a brands division to support the development and expansion of The Sharper Image, FAO Schwarz and “future” brands in the areas of marketing, new product development and licensee support.
The FTC cleared the way for Symantec's $2.3 billion acquisition of identity protection provider LifeLock, said an early termination notice issued by the commission this week. Symantec, which announced the acquisition last month, said it expected to close the deal Q1 after antitrust and shareholder approvals (see 1611210014).
The FTC cleared the way for Samsung’s $8 billion acquisition of Harman International (see the Nov. 15 issue of this publication), and Windstream’s $1.1 billion deal to buy EarthLink (see 1611070032), said early termination notices ending the transactions’ Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting periods. Samsung/Harman is expected to close mid-2017, Windstream/EarthLink in first half of 2017.
Gracenote ownership will change hands for the third time in eight years when Tribune Media completes the sale of the audio, video and sports metadata supplier to Nielsen for $560 million cash in Q1. Selling Gracenote to Nielsen will enable Tribune to focus on its “core” TV and entertainment business, the broadcaster said in a Tuesday announcement. By bringing Gracenote into the fold, Nielsen “will have the ability to provide clients with deeper analytics on consumer behavior and offer an unprecedented view of audience engagement from discovery to consumption,” Nielsen said Tuesday in a statement. In 2008, Sony acquired Gracenote for $260 million and once viewed the company as central to plans to “enhance and accelerate” its digital content (see 0804240158). But Sony sold Gracenote to Tribune in 2014 for $170 million as part of a restructuring that later included the spin-offs of its TV and Vaio PC businesses (see 1403050067).
Tegna, which has been liquidating some assets, said it sold its ShopLocal digital marketer, which does business as Cofactor. The buyer of the business that connects shoppers including those online across channels and devices was digital marketing solutions firm Liquidus, the broadcaster announced Thursday. Tegna a few months ago said it's spinning off Cars.com. Analysts said then it may sell CareerBuilder (see 1609070036), and last year it said it sold PointRoll (see 1511120054) and was selling its headquarters (see 1507210074).
Twenty-First Century Fox is offering Sky shareholders roughly $13.34 per share in its planned takeover of the U.K. pay-TV company (1612090029), it said in a news release Thursday. Twenty-First Century Fox said that's roughly a 40 percent premium and the deal is expected to close before the end of 2017, pending regulatory and shareholder approval. It said Sky's independent board committee plans to recommend the acquisition terms unanimously.
There's speculation Verizon could combine with a cable company, but any such deal would have to clear a regulatory hurdle and business issues like total debt loads and unfunded pension and possibly other post retirement benefit liabilities, Citigroup analyst Michael Rollins wrote investors Thursday. He said a quad-play offering may not have as many revenue benefits as hoped, though a combined network would have scale and synergy benefits. He said Verizon's 5G fixed wireless plans could be "a viable third pipe" that could compete with the wireline and cable broadband duopoly without any need for cable assets. Rollins said the expected tax law overhauls and rising interest rates are driving increased urgency for mergers and acquisitions.