In a filing late Wednesday in response to Apple and book publishers, the Department of Justice reiterates its claim that agency pricing and the alleged conspiracy have resulted in “unmistakable consumer harm,” but refuses to release its ebook pricing analysis. Read more at paidContent »
Tablets featured prominently in the connected consumer space, both as a product category and as a component of broader platform strategies by major OS providers Microsoft, Google and Apple. Meanwhile Facebook began laying the groundwork to add payment processing to its platform. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The Department of Justice’s trial against Apple, Penguin and Macmillan, who are accused of colluding to fix prices on e-books, will take place in a little under a year, on June 3, 2013, presiding U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ruled Friday. Read more at paidContent »
The Department of Justice is looking into the power that cable providers have over how and where consumers can access television content via the Internet. It’s a step that acknowledges the vertical integration of cable as well as their control over the last mile. Read more »
Penguin and Macmillan, the two publishers fighting the Department of Justice’s e-book price fixing lawsuit in court, have both filed responses to the DOJ suit. Macmillan’s response is shorter and more fiery; Penguin’s is longer, with more colorful details and explainers. Read more at paidContent »
In the latest court filing in the ongoing Justice Department e-books price-fixing suit, Apple says it did not conspire to fix the prices of digital books to hurt competitors and its business strategy around pricing was “perfectly proper,” according to a Reuters report. Read more »
Sen. Al Franken has penned a letter to the FCC and the Department of Justice accusing the agencies of letting Comcast walk all over them when it comes to the conditions they imposed on the cable company when it purchased NBC-Universal. Read more »
Book publishers argue that Amazon is a vicious monopoly that has too much power over them and their content. But they need to realize they gave Amazon much of that power themselves when they agreed to shackle all of their books in DRM chains. Read more »
Nearly two days after the DOJ filed suit against Apple and publishers for allegedly colluding to fix e-book prices, Apple has released a short statement denying the accusations and criticizing Amazon’s “monopolistic grip.” Read more at paidContent »
The Justice Department is pouncing on statements by Apple like “aikido move” and “trounce Amazon” to prove its case that Apple was the hub of a illegal conspiracy to fix the price of e-books. While the statements sounds serious, the government’s overall explanation of Apple’s role […] Read more at paidContent »
AT&T has proven many times in the last few months that it just can’t let its failed acquisition of T-Mobile go, but on Friday its bitterness turned to vindictiveness, delivering a big “I told you so” to its critics after T-Mobile announced 1,900 layoffs. Read more »
The AT&T-Mo saga wasted countless dollars and resources, dominating the attention of regulators and the wireless industry for a year, but AT&T’s failure more than made up for those losses. We now have more fearsome regulation and a greater awareness of the mobile market’s precarious competitive state. Read more »
The judge hearing the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against AT&T’s planned takeover of T-Mobile has agreed to give the two parties a month to figure out if they can salvage the $39 billion deal. The court will revisit the case on Jan 18. Read more »
The Justice Department has sent a clear signal to AT&T that it doesn’t like its tactics as the operator tries to buy T-Mobile. The DOJ is seeking a halt all court proceedings until AT&T resubmits its FCC merger application, potentially putting the deal in limbo. Read more »
The FCC has accepted AT&T’s request to withdraw its T-Mobile merger petition, allowing it to resubmit its application if it can overcome the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit. But the FCC didn’t let AT&T get off without releasing its report condemning the merger for all to see. Read more »
AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile seems all but dead. If the deal falls through mobile operators stand to gain or lose depending on which of side of the battle lines the stand. The biggest losers, however, aren’t necessarily AT&T and T-Mobile. Read more »
Today, on a public holiday in the U.S., AT&T (NYSE: T) and Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) issued a statement saying they would be withdrawing t… Read more at paidContent »
Following the FCC’s decision to send the $39-billion proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA to an administrative hearing, AT&T has withdrawn its application to combine its spectrum with T-Mobile’s from the regulatory agency. Additionally, it said it will take a $4 billion charge against earnings. Read more »
U.S-listed Chinese public companies are facing growing scrutiny for their accounting practices, and that investigation has extended to cleantech businesses as well. The latest example comes from A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Chinese wind turbine maker. Read more »
The attorneys general of seven states joined the Justice Department’s suit today to block AT&T’s proposed buy of T-Mobile, citing worries about competition. Together these state represent a third of the American population. So what does that mean for the deal? Read more »
AT&T filed its response to the DOJ lawsuit that attempts to stop Ma Bell’s acquisition of T-Mobile, and the response can be summed up as: T-Mobile is a loser, but if we can take it over, it’s a win for customers who will get better service. Read more »
Just because the Department of Justice and Sprint are suing to stop AT&T from buying T-Mobile, doesn’t mean the deal is dead. Analyst firm Strategy Analytics today said it thinks the deal could still happen if AT&T sells off some of its spectrum. Read more »
Not content to let the Justice Department stand in the way of the proposed AT&T buy of T-Mobile, Sprint sued AT&T, Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile on Tuesday under provisions associated with the Clayton Antitrust Act, the operator said. Read more »
AT&T’s strategy for pushing through its $39-billion purchase of T-Mobile, thus consolidating further the majority of the mobile subscribers, 4G-capable spectrum and revenue in the U.S. is fantastic. Let’s take a look at the promises, the changes in strategy and the continuing issues. Read more »
The Department of Justice and the California State Attorney are looking into MPEG LA’s formation of a patent pool for Google’s WebM video format. Regulators are trying to figure out whether the patent pool is meant to stifle competition for the established video format H.264. Read more »
Conditions imposed on Comcast and NBC Universal by the FCC and DOJ will require the companies to make their cable content available to new online video distributors. But those over-the-top distributors have some hurdles to jump before the regulatory agencies will enforce those conditions. Read more »
The US government’s move to order Twitter to disclose information about users involved with WikiLeaks confirms the network’s status as a real-time information network, but also makes it obvious how much we have come to rely on it, and the implications of that dependence. Read more »
The U.S. Department of Justice has reached a settlement with Adobe Systems, Apple, Google, Intel Corp., Intuit and Pixar, which will prevent them from signing no-solicitation agreements for employees. It’s been widely rumored that high-tech companies entered these agreements to eliminate competition for skilled employees. Read more »
