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Apple can repatriate $252.3B under US tax bill; Disney backs Fox's privacy call

Top News

* Passing of the U.S. tax bill would let Apple Inc. bring back its $252.3 billion foreign cash pile to the U.S. after paying a one-time 15.5% tax of about $39.1 billion, Reuters reports. The U.S. House of Representatives held a second vote on the Republican tax plan and passed an updated version of the bill from the Senate 224-201.

* Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. announced special bonuses for their employees after the passage of the tax bill in U.S. Congress. AT&T said that as soon as President Donald Trump signs the bill into law, the company will pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 AT&T U.S. employees, AT&T also plans to invest an additional $1 billion in the U.S. in 2018. Meanwhile, Comcast will give $1,000 bonuses to more than 100,000 eligible frontline and nonexecutive employees as a result of the passage of "tax reform and the FCC's action on broadband."

* Walt Disney Co. backed 21st Century Fox Inc.'s call to ensure privacy of its data in case it is used at AT&T and Time Warner Inc.'s antitrust trial in 2018, Reuters reports. In a request sent to Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Disney wants to have its data protected, which it previously submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice as part of its case against AT&T and Time Warner's proposed merger.

* The sports programmer produced virtual reality content around the Pac-12 Conference's football championship game. President Mark Shuken said in an interview that short-form content will be critical in negotiations of rights deals.

* The sudden exit by ESPN Inc. President John Skipper comes as the sports programmer prepares to launch a direct-to-consumer service, faces negotiations with legacy distributors and looks ahead to a Fox integration. Skipper became president of ESPN and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks in January 2012. During his tenure leading the sports-media company, he secured renewals with the NBA, MLB and college sports conferences that boosted ESPN's portfolio, continued platform diversification efforts and championed journalism and news.

Technology

* The Communications Workers of America sued hundreds of U.S. employers for allegedly excluding older workers from seeing job recruitment ads posted on Facebook Inc.'s platform. The union filed the class-action lawsuit against companies such as Amazon.com Inc., Cox Communications Inc. and T-Mobile US Inc. over charges that their Facebook job ads targeted specified age ranges such as 18-40 or 22-45, at the expense of older workers.

* Meanwhile, Facebook said on its website that it is "an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer" that does not engage in age-discrimination practices. Also, Amazon said it corrected some of the ads that were "inconsistent" with its recruitment approach, Reuters reports.

* Apple will introduce one user experience by launching a single app that will work across the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers, Bloomberg News reports, citing sources with knowledge of the matter. Software developers will begin designing combined apps starting as early as 2018, according to the report.

* Apple addressed concerns that it slowed down older iPhones by saying that it only introduced a feature to mitigate shutdown issues in iPhones with older batteries, TechCrunch.com reports, citing a company statement. The tech giant said the new feature rolled out for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE versions would work to smooth out the instantaneous peaks to stop the device from shutting down. Apple plans to launch the same feature for iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2 and other products as well.

* In more company news, Apple will buy between 180 million and 200 million flexible OLED panels for iPhone X from Samsung Display in 2018, The Investor reports, citing industry sources. The sale of OLED panels are expected to result in revenue of nearly $19.8 billion to $22 billion for Samsung Display.

Multichannel

* Charter Communications Inc. overhauled its organizational setup to reflect the integration of Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks LLC, Multichannel News reports, citing an internal announcement. The promotions and organizational changes were implemented across the company's Field Operations group and sales and marketing segments.

Internet & OTT

* Facebook will stop using disputed flags to point out fake news on its platform. Instead, the social media company will display related articles that will provide context to a story, Facebook said in a post. Also, Facebook will start an initiative to understand how people decide whether some information is accurate or not based on the news sources cited.

* Netflix Inc. placed a second-season order for German original production "Dark," the company said. The series created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese is a family saga with a supernatural twist.

* Netflix has already ordered a sequel to "Bright," the action-fantasy film starring Will Smith that will be available exclusively on the streaming platform on Dec. 22, Bloomberg News reports.

The day ahead

Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.

In Asia, the Hang Seng rose 0.45% to 29,367.06, and the Nikkei 225 was down 0.11% to 22,866.10.

In Europe, as of midday, the FTSE 100 was up 0.37% to 7,553.33, and the Euronext 100 fell 0.03% to 1,038.96.

On the macro front

The GDP report, the jobless claims report, the Chicago Fed national activity index, the FHFA house price index, the leading indicators , the EIA natural gas report, the Fed balance sheet and the money supply report are due out today.

Featured news

The Daily Dose Europe: NJJ Telecom, Iliad to acquire stake in eir; Orange CEO, tycoon to face trial: Xavier Niel's NJJ Telecom and Iliad agreed to acquire a majority stake in eir for €3.5 billion, while Orange SA Chairman and CEO Stéphane Richard and tycoon Bernard Tapie will go to court over alleged embezzlement.

The Daily Dose Asia-Pacific: Japan Display seeks ¥200B boost; Alibaba eyes Chinese video sharing platform: Japan Display Inc. is in talks with three Chinese panel makers for an investment of over ¥200 billion, while Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is planning to acquire a majority stake in Chinese video sharing platform AcFun.

Hires and Fires: Times Co. board member retiring; SINA names independent director: Michael Golden will retire from New York Times Co.'s board, effective Dec. 31. SINA Corp. appointed James Jianzhang Liang an independent director of the company.

Tech Time: LG invests trillions in advanced tech; Baidu to form AI-focused fund: South Korea's LG Group is eyeing an investment of 19 trillion won on advanced technologies in 2018, while Baidu Inc. unit Baidu Ventures struck a deal to form a 2-billion-yuan fund for artificial intelligence in China.

Featured research

Global Multichannel: South Africa a lucrative market despite decreasing subscriber market share: Although South Africa still accounts for almost half of sub-Saharan Africa's multichannel service revenues, its subscriber share has declined below 30% as the growth of other sub-Saharan Africa markets, particularly Nigeria, has accelerated.

Broadcast Investor: Deal market November — Large deal volume coming mostly from estimates: U.S. broadcast station deal volume reached an estimated $214.5 million in November, making it the most active month of the year's second half. Over 90% of that total is from station swaps, undisclosed deal volumes and station values of donations.

Broadcast Investor: Public trading multiples: TV stocks soar on news of Fox sale to Disney: In December, TV stock prices soared 10.4% on average as of Dec. 18 after news of Fox's $66.1 billion sale to Walt Disney on Dec. 14. Radio stock prices rose 2.3% on average through Dec. 18.

Economics of TV & Film: Films heading to home video faster in 2017: The 180 films Kagan tracked in 2017 were released on DVD/Blu-ray 98 days after their theatrical release, down from 114 days in 2016.

The Daily Dose is updated as of 7 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription.