13 Jan, 2021
American Tower pens €7.7B deal for Telxius; AT&T seeks $14B loan for 5G spectrum
By Haseeb Ali
* American Tower Corp. agreed to acquire Telxius Telecom SA from Spain's Telefónica SA in a transaction worth about €7.7 billion. The deal covers nearly 31,000 communications sites in Germany, Spain, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina.
* AT&T Inc. is seeking $14 billion worth of loans to buy additional spectrum for its 5G network, Bloomberg News reported, citing sources. Meanwhile, T-Mobile US Inc. secured a $3 billion loan to finance additional 5G spectrum.
➤ Data Dispatch: APAC box office revenue, film releases show signs of pandemic recovery
Box office revenue in Asia-Pacific fell 71.8% year over year to $3.81 billion in the first 11 months of 2020.
➤ Conference Chatter: CES 2021: Tech execs see state, global initiatives driving US privacy law
Privacy executives from Amazon.com Inc., Twitter Inc. and Google LLC said while many have long recognized the need for a federal standard on privacy, the incoming Biden administration may be well-positioned to move on it.
TECHNOLOGY
* Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd. sold 90 patents to Chinese technology supplier Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., in a bid to unload most of its intellectual property, The Globe and Mail reported, citing records from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
* Zoom Video Communications Inc. reported the sale of 1 million Zoom Phone seats within two years of the product's general availability. Zoom Phone is available for customers at the Zoom Pro tier and above as an add-on, and is also included as part of Zoom United.
* French technology company Atos SE agreed to acquire Canadian cybersecurity company In Fidem Inc. for an undisclosed sum.
* Google offered to support President-elect Joe Biden's plans for a new U.S. immigration law, Reuters reported. The company also offered to cover the application fees of about 500 young immigrants seeking employment under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
INTERNET AND OTT
* AT&T is no longer selling AT&T TV Now and has merged the streaming service with AT&T TV, TV Answer Man reported, citing its website. AT&T also raised AT&T TV's programming prices, eliminated its regional sports fee for most plans, and terminated its two-year contract requirement.
* The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit against Facebook Inc. has been reassigned to Judge James Boasberg, who is hearing a similar case filed by state attorneys general, Reuters reported. In a minute order, Judge Chris Cooper, who had been assigned the FTC's case, said he sought the transfer to Boasberg.
* Amazon Web Services Inc. and Facebook urged employees to be careful amid threats to their safety after the firms banned social networking platform Parler Inc., BBC News reported.
* Google News Initiative is launching a fund of up to $3 million to aid efforts to counter misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine. The Alphabet Inc.-owned Google fund will be accepting applications from any news organization with experience in fact-checking and debunking.
* YouTube LLC removed new content uploaded to President Donald Trump's channel for violating its policies, the platform noted in a tweet. YouTube also indefinitely disabled comments on President Trump's channel.
FILM AND TV
* Warner Media LLC's CNN (US) is shutting down CNN Airport (US) on March 31, Variety reported, citing an official announcement. The network was offered across 58 different airports across the U.S.
MARKETS
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