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Media & Comm, most read: US tax reform's impact on tech; net neutrality overhaul

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Media & Comm, most read: US tax reform's impact on tech; net neutrality overhaul

Here are the most read stories of the week.

US tax reform a mixed bag for tech giants

With a final tax reform bill moving closer to passage by Congress, analysts said the legislation has a mixed appeal for large U.S. technology companies, some of which already pay effective tax rates below the proposed 20% federal rate due to significant overseas cash holdings. Both the House and Senate versions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would lower the corporate tax rate to 20% from 35%, though the House would implement the new rate a year sooner, in 2018.

Divided FCC overhauls net neutrality, gives FTC more authority over broadband

In a widely expected yet highly contentious move, the Federal Communications Commission approved a major overhaul to its net neutrality regulations that will lessen the agency's role in regulating internet service providers, undoing a major change enacted two years earlier under the prior Democratic administration. The commission voted 3-2 along party lines Dec. 14 to adopt Republican Chairman Ajit Pai's order overturning the Open Internet Order of 2015.

Fox deal positions Disney to tackle Netflix, analysts say

While extolling the virtues of the expanded international reach and enhanced sports holdings that the company's $52.4 billion stock deal for a range of 21st Century Fox Inc. assets will bring, Walt Disney Co. Chairman and CEO Bob Iger left little doubt that the key driver behind the transformative transaction is boosting the company's direct-to-consumer streaming offerings. Iger, speaking during a Dec. 14 call announcing the deal, said "one of the most exciting aspects of our Fox acquisition is that it will allow us to greatly accelerate our direct-to-consumer strategy enabling us to better serve consumers around the world."

Fox eyes streaming additions, station acquisitions following Disney deal

With the pending sale of its movie and TV studio business, its international assets, and cable and regional sports networks to Disney in a stock deal valued at $52.4 billion, the new 21st Century Fox will emerge as a more focused, U.S.-centric entity. Executives on the Dec. 14 conference call discussing the deal referred to the remaining assets as "New Fox."

Analyzing the information technology sector's outsize role in ESG funds

While the information technology sector has been plagued by bad press over data breaches, privacy issues and concerns about foreigners buying ads to influence U.S. politics, the industry has attracted much more positive scrutiny from asset managers, who have given it an outsized weighting in funds pegged to companies' progress on environmental, social and governance, or ESG, metrics.