1. Monthly archive
  2. April 2018

April 2018

Regulatory Fears Helped Sway Fox Toward Disney Deal

The Walt Disney Co.’s pending deal to buy certain assets of 21st Century Fox were briefly interrupted by a larger offer from Comcast, but the cable giant’s reluctance to offer a termination fee and concerns that the transaction would face stiff resistance from regulatory bodies pushed Fox towards a less lucrative deal with Disney, according to federal filings. Fox’s fears were bolstered by the Department of Justice’s decision to block another large vertical merger – AT&T and Time Warner Inc. – that was eerily similar to a Comcast pairing.

Palantir Knows Everything About You

Founded in 2004 by Peter Thiel and some fellow PayPal alumni, Palantir cut its teeth working for the Pentagon and the CIA in Afghanistan and Iraq. The company’s engineers and products don’t do any spying themselves; they’re more like a spy’s brain, collecting and analyzing information that’s fed in from the hands, eyes, nose, and ears. The software combs through disparate data sources—financial documents, airline reservations, cellphone records, social media postings—and searches for connections that human analysts might miss.

Americans Favor Protecting Information Freedoms Over Government Steps to Restrict False News Online

The widespread concerns over misinformation online have created a tension in the United States between taking steps to restrict that information – including possible government regulation – and protecting the long-held belief in the freedom to access and publish information. A new Pew Research Center survey finds that the majority of Americans are resistant to action by the US government that might also limit those freedoms but are more open to action from technology companies.

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