UK regulators are probing ties between disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and Barclays CEO Jes Staley. The bank’s board is so far standing 100% with Staley, who has expressed “regret” over his relationship with Epstein....more
-The DOJ has announced charges against four members of China’s military related to the 2017 cyberattack on credit-reporting agency Equifax, the breach that revealed “trade secrets and the personal data of about 145 million...more
Thirteen states and the District of Columbia are suing to block the $26 billion plan to merge T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. The trial is slated to begin today with state officials arguing the deal would create “a more...more
Because who wants a nice quiet December, right? Yesterday, the U.S. opened yet another trade war front by proposing retaliatory tariffs of up to 100% on a wide range of French imports after announcing that “it found France’s...more
Bloomberg is reporting that Walgreens Boots is weighing a potential deal “to take the company private in what could become the largest leveraged buyout in history.” PE firms like KKR are apparently in the mix to assist in the...more
In a Public Notice released October 7, 2019, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the status of the 39 short-form applications for Auction 103, which is scheduled to begin on December 10, 2019. ...more
Drug giants Pfizer and Mylan have inked a deal that will merge the former’s off-patent drugs with the latter’s generics business, a tie-up that creates a mammoth global seller of lower-priced medicines....more
Sprint and T-Mobile are facing new merger headwinds in the form of a NY & CA state AG-led lawsuit in the Southern District of New York that seeks to block the deal, alleging that it would cost customers of the companies “at...more
Recent San Francisco-federal court decisions from Judge Vince Chhabria suggest that the “dozens” of lawsuits accusing Facebook of violating users’ privacy for its own profit (many of which stemmed from the Cambridge Analytica...more
In addition to the proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile and its planned consolidation of cell sites, providers such as Verizon and AT&T are trading their interests in towers and other wireless deployments. ...more
Some inside baseball on how Sprint and T-Mobile are likely to try to convince suspicious regulators that their merger is a good thing. Hint: it has a lot to do with China and 5G....more
After years of flirting, Sprint and T-Mobile have made it official—announcing over the weekend that they have reached a deal to become one company. The deal—if it passes regulatory muster—would create a company with a...more
Breakingviews is raising an eyebrow at the news from yesterday about Broadcom’s unsolicited $105 billion offer for Qualcomm [the largest-ever proposed tech deal], especially in light of the “mountain of debt” Broadcom would...more
The moral of this story is as follows: if Maysayoshi Son says the merger’s off, it’s probably off (regardless of what the rest of the board says). We discussed the will they/won’t they status of the T-Mobile/Sprint deal last...more
The White House has made it official and nominated Fed governor Jerome Powell as the next Chair of the Federal Reserve. Powell is expected to continue the basic fiscal (though not necessarily regulatory) policies of the...more
Swiss pharma giant Novartis has issued a $3.9 billion cash bid to buy Advanced Accelerator Applications, a French company [and spinoff of the organization in charge of the Large Hadron Collider] known for producing...more
Call it the Loeb effect: just days after Third Point announced its sizeable stake in Nestle, the company is preparing to spend billions on stock buybacks in an effort to create value for shareholders, hinting that it would...more
European antitrust regulators have dropped a massive $2.7 billion fine on Google for allegedly “unfairly favoring some of its own search services over those of rivals”....more
On February 18, 2016, Sprint Communications Inc. filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the United States Supreme Court to review the New York Court of Appeals’ denial of Sprint’s attempt to dismiss the...more
Mobile service providers frequently look at their customers’ credit reports and scores to determine the best pricing plans for those customers. But asa recent settlement between Sprint Corporation and the Federal Trade...more
The New York Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday, October 20, 2015 that Sprint must face a $390 million tax fraud suit brought by New York Attorney General (AG) Eric Schneiderman, finding that the state’s tax law applies to...more
Today we’re taking a look at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s cases against Sprint Corporation (“Sprint”) and Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless (“Verizon”) for mobile cramming. For starters, what does...more
On Thursday, April 9, 2015, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment for AT&T Mobility LLC, Verizon Wireless LLC, T-Mobile USA Inc. and Sprint Corp., in a text messaging price-fixing...more