Top News
* Verizon Communications Inc. considered buying CBS Corp. before the media company engaged in merger talks with Viacom Inc., Deadline.com reports, citing unnamed sources. According to a court filing, CBS disclosed the interest of another would-be acquirer, but Shari Redstone, who controls CBS through her family-owned National Amusements Inc., discouraged the potential bidder from proposing a deal.
* Shari Redstone, president of National Amusements Inc., said the holding company is "outraged" by the legal action taken by CBS Corp. and refuted the characterization of recent events by CBS in a statement cited by Variety. Redstone also said NAI did not plan to replace the CBS board or force a deal that was not supported by CBS and Viacom. The statement came after CBS filed a lawsuit that accused National Amusements of breaching its fiduciary duty, and asked the court to block National Amusements from interfering with a special meeting of the board.
* Charter Communications Inc. unit Spectrum Enterprise will spend more than $1 billion on its new fiber infrastructure in 2018. According to a news release, the company will use the investment to increase the density of its national fiber network and to deploy new tools, training and resources required to improve the client experience.
* Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Apple Inc. are heading back to court this week to decide how much Samsung should pay the technology giant for infringing on three design patents. The case, which dates back to 2011, involves patents covering the rectangular, round-cornered front face of a phone; the front face and the surrounding rim or bezel; and the display of icons on the screen.
Internet & OTT
* Netflix Inc. will spend 85% of its content budget for 2018 on original programming, Variety reports, citing the company's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. Speaking at a conference, Sarandos said the company will have about 1,000 originals on the service by the end of 2018, with 470 of those set to premiere between now and end of the year. Netflix plans to spend up to $8 billion on content in 2018.
* Facebook Inc. introduced tools to help people report conversations in the Messenger app. Hadi Michel, product manager of Messenger, said in an official post that users can report such issues from the Messenger app instead of using Facebook reporting tools or Messenger web.
* Google Inc. will upgrade all paid consumer Google Drive storage plans to Google One, according to an official blog post. With 15 GB of space available for free, users can pay for monthly plans that range between 100 GB and 30 terabytes of space.
Film & TV Networks
* AMC Networks Inc. appointed Jennifer Caserta chief transformation officer of the company. Caserta was previously president and general manager of AMC Networks' comedy network IFC, the company said.
* With "Infinity War," Walt Disney Co. now holds the record for nine of the 10 largest domestic box office openings of all time, CEO Bob Iger said. The company reported record fiscal second-quarter studio entertainment revenue and operating income for the period ended March 31, which executives attributed to the success of "Black Panther."
Technology
* Apple's self-driving car fleet in California has increased to 55 vehicles from 27 earlier this year, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles' emailed statement cited by macReports.com. GM Cruise has the highest number of self-driving vehicles being tested in California, while Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo is No. 3 with 51 vehicles.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a lower opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng fell 1.23% to 31,152.03, while the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.21% to 22,818.02.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 climbed 0.28% to 7,732.60, and the Euronext 100 shed 0.04% to 1,070.77.
On the macro front
The retail sales report, the Empire State Manufacturing Survey, the Redbook, the business inventories report, the Housing Market Index and the Treasury International Capital report are due out today.
Featured news
The Daily Dose Europe: Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao to step down; board changes at TDC: Vodafone Group PLC said CFO Nick Read will assume the role of CEO on Oct. 1, replacing Vittorio Colao, while the chief executive and majority of the board members of TDC A/S will step down.
The Daily Dose Asia-Pacific: China Tower files for HK IPO; Bharti Airtel, Telenor India complete merger: Cellphone tower operator China Tower Corp. Ltd filed an application for an IPO in Hong Kong, while Bharti Airtel Ltd. completed its acquisition of Telenor India.
The week in OTT: Facebook buys soccer series; Netflix bolsters lineup: Netflix continued to bolster its lineup with new and returning shows, while Facebook bought rights to a soccer drama from star soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo.
Chinese tech giants increasingly under pressure as content crackdown intensifies: As authorities in China increasingly step up efforts to filter online content, industry experts have said tech companies can expect more rules and regulations.
Featured research
Economics of Networks: Cable Program Investor: Table of contents for Issue No. 246, published May 2018.
Global Multichannel: The state of DTT in Western Europe: DVB-T2 and HbbTV, the critical elements: Existential threats from OTT, and its impact on consumer viewing habits, as well as the increasing scarcity of spectrum as more tranches of frequency are migrated to mobile, are boosting innovation in the digital terrestrial television space.
Multichannel Trends: Q1'18 video declines abate, but pressure remains on traditional multichannel: Traditional multichannel video services illustrated modest improvement to the subscriber trends in the first quarter of 2018, notching smaller sequential losses on both an absolute and relative basis.
The Best Of: Kagan research and analysis, editor's picks: Presenting the editor's top picks from Kagan's exclusive research and analysis for the week ended May 11.
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