Merger-Merger-Mergers
AT&T-TCI Merge in $68-Billion Deal for Local
Entry Using Cable (TelecomAM)
With Cable Deal, AT&T Makes Move to Regain Empire (NYT)
Breakthrough for AT&T Came at Secret Meeting (WP)
AT&T Buys TCI, Looks to One-Stop Future (WP)
A High Tech Vision Faces Big Hurdles (WSJ)
AT&T to Acquire TCI for $37.3 Billion (WSJ)
Connected: The AT&T-TCI Linkup (WSJ)
Telecom World Is Wondering 'Who's Next?' (WSJ)
Hooking Up The Nation (NYT)
Phone Strike in Puerto Rico Nearly Doubles (NYT)
Campaign Finance Reform
Parties to Corruption (WP)
Minorities
Black America on the Air (NYT)
Lifestyle
Panel Urges Americans to Turn Off TV, Get Involved
Antitrust
Microsoft Rushes On (NYT)
A Mistaken Microsoft Ruling (NYT)
Infrastructure
Kennard Offers Deal to Encourage Advanced Networks (TelecomAM)
Arts
Guggenheim to Add Digital Art to Its Collection (CyberTimes)
Internet
Judge Issues Injunction Against State Internet Porn Law (CyberTimes)
Telephony
Phone Giants Team Up to Challenge Microsoft (WSJ)
Lifestyles II
Talk About Fresh Vegetables! These Made Film Raters Blush
** Merger-Merger-Mergers **
Title: AT&T-TCI Merge in $68-Billion Deal for Local Entry Using Cable
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Mergers
Title: With Cable Deal, AT&T Makes Move to Regain Empire
Source: New York Times (A1)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/06/biztech/articles/25merger.html
Author: Seth Schiesel
Title: Breakthrough for AT&T Came at Secret Meeting
Source: Washington Post (A8)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-06/25/138l-062598-idx.html
Author: Mike Mills
Description: AT&T will pay $68 billion to merge will TCI; $48 billion for
TCI's shares plus an additional $20 billion for TCI's Liberty Media Corp.
The new company AT&T Consumer Services (ACS) will offer video, Internet and
telephony over a single connection. The Baby Bell companies replied by
issued a joint statement calling on the FCC to step up the process of
approving in-region long distance entry. [See reaction from FCC Chairman
Kennard http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/Statements/stwek850.html]
Title: AT&T Buys TCI, Looks to One-Stop Future
Source: Washington Post (A1,A14)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-06/25/168l-062598-idx.html
Author: Paul Farhi
Title: A High Tech Vision Faces Big Hurdles
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1,B8)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Jared Sandberg & Thomas E. Weber
Issue: Mergers
Description: Following AT&T's announcement of its $48 billion takeover of
Tele-Communications Inc. yesterday, AT&T vowed to become the one-stop
provider of a variety of telecommunications services to households across
the U.S. Both TCI's chairman, John C. Malone, and AT&T chairman, C. Michael
Armstrong, promised on Wednesday that millions of residential customers
would ultimately benefit from the companies' merger. AT&T said by coupling
its long-distance lines with TCI's cable connections it will be able to
offer the first major competition to the regional Bell phone companies,
which now own a "near-monopoly" on local phone service. AT&T also envisions
a time when customers will be able to pay for all major telecommunications
services via a single monthly bill.
Title: AT&T to Acquire TCI for $37.3 Billion
Source: Wall Street Journal (A3,A16)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Leslie Cauley
Title: Connected: The AT&T-TCI Linkup
Source: Wall Street Journal (A16)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Stephanie Mehta, David Bank
Issue: Mergers
Description: AT&T, signed an agreement yesterday to acquire most of TCI's
cable and digital assets, including its stake in At Home Corp., the
cable-backed Internet service. "This will combine the best brand in the
industry with the best broadband company in the industry," said C. Michael
Armstrong, AT&T's chairman.
Title: Telecom World Is Wondering 'Who's Next?'
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1,B8)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Kyle Pope
Issue: Mergers
Description: More mergers? Analysts not only expect more mergers between
phone and cable companies but a buying frenzy within the cable industry.
"One way or another, these companies are going to be affiliated with phone
companies," said Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Jessica Reif Cohen. "There's
going to be consolidation in this industry." They also predict that the
combination of cable and phone services is a precursor to the marketing of
bundled cable services.
Title: Hooking Up The Nation
Source: New York Times (A1)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/06/biztech/articles/25merger-assess.
html
Author: Saul Hansell
Issue: Mergers
Description: Hey, does all this sound familiar. Phone giant buys cable giant
TCI and changes the communications landscape. Five years ago, it was Bell
Atlantic that was hot for TCI in the "mother of all anti-mergers." What's
different now? The Internet. While the TCI-Bell Atlantic deal promised 500
video channels to the home -- a service no one knew if consumers wanted --
the deal with AT&T is actually a scramble for the two companies to keep pace
and provide Internet access over phone and cable networks. The competitors
are Time Warner and other cable companies and companies that weren't on the
map five years ago like WorldCom-MCI and America Online. "Though few would
have predicted it back in 1993, the Internet and its multimedia World Wide
Web have become that vaunted information highway -- and the main vehicle for
driving it is not a television set but an increasingly TV-like computer,"
Hansell writes.
Title: Phone Strike in Puerto Rico Nearly Doubles
Source: New York Times (A15)
http://www.nytimes.com/
Issue: Mergers
Description: The last government-owned telephone company in the US, Puerto
Rico Telephone, is being sold to a consortium led by GTE. The $1.875 billion
deal has hit a bit of a snag as workers strike in protest of the sale.
Twenty percent of the companies subscribers are without service due to the
strike. The strike is growing from telephone workers to other industries as
well.
** Campaign Finance Reform **
Title: Parties to Corruption
Source: Washington Post (A23)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-06/25/102l-062598-idx.html
Author: Philip B. Heyman and Donald J. Simon
Issue: Campaign Finance Reform
Description: While Congress is considering legislation to completely ban
soft money, two political parties have filed parallel lawsuits asking a
federal court to find that the First Amendment requires that they be allowed
to "radically" expand their use of soft money. They hope that the
"mind-boggling" complexity of the campaign finance system will keep people
from noticing what they are doing. If the parties win, the whole effort to
combat the corruption in the U.S. campaign finance system by limiting money
in politics will crumble.
** Minorities **
Title: Black America on the Air
Source: New York Times (A22)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/regional/ny-bedford.html
Author: Jim Yardley
Issue: Minorities/Television
Description: At a time when blacks were largely only seen on TV in newscasts
about riots, protests, or crime, Charles Hobson produced "Inside
Bedford-Stuyvesant." "This was a way for blacks to hear their voices," said
Hobson. "Here's a community of about 400,000 people at that time, with all
of their culture and churches, and no coverage." Mr. Hobson has edited
excerpts of the 1968-70 show [were you trying to guess the year?] into a
55-minute film. The show had a 52-program run on WNEW in New York. It ended
when sponsorship money dwindled.
** Lifestyle **
Title: Panel Urges Americans to Turn Off TV, Get Involved
Source: Washington Post (A6)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-06/25/143l-062598-idx.html
Author: David S. Broder
Issue: Lifestlyes
Description: The bipartisan National Commission on Civic Renewal released an
18-month study yesterday, titled "A Nation of Spectators." The study reports
that community and civic life are on the wane and recommends that the remedy
lies in turning off the television set and getting more involved with
family, school, neighborhood and church. The private commission said the
concern and cynicism that many Americans voiced cannot be placed entirely on
poor leadership but involves the indifference of those who spend more time
watching TV than working with their neighbors. The 20-member commission has
made several suggestions for solving this problem, most of which are likely
to be considered controversial.
** Antitrust **
Title: Microsoft Rushes On
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/oped/25rush.html
Author: Douglas Rushkoff, author
Issue: Antitrust
Description: Rushkoff proposes that antitrust regulators are fighting a
"phantom battle" with Microsoft. "[W]hat happens when there is no such thing
as software? Thanks to rivals like Netscape, which were threatening to
expand their programs into entire operating systems, Microsoft got the
bright idea of expanding its operating system into programs. In the Windows
future, users will no longer open a separate program for word processing,
spreadsheet calculations or Internet browsing. The same system window will
do all those things. Only the menu bar might change. In other words, the
operating system will not be the platform from which a computer user
launches software; it will be the software. Instead of buying new programs,
people will simply add functionality to the system, much in the way they now
download plug-ins like video players." Rushkoff suggests we take cable
regulation of the '70's [everyone's favorite regulatory model] and apply it
to Microsoft and Intel: "If they want to become the architects of our
information infrastructure, then they will have to demonstrate their
willingness to promote the public interest. For cable television, that meant
public access programming and reasonable rates for basic services. For
systems architects, it could mean on-line libraries, educational provisions
or open coding standards. What will serve the public interest is not
greater competition between information architects, but greater cooperation
and greater accountability."
Title: A Mistaken Microsoft Ruling
Source: New York Times (A26)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/25thu2.html
Author: NYT Editorial Staff
Issue: Antitrust
Description: "One month after the Justice Department filed its sweeping
antitrust suit against Microsoft, a Federal appeals court has issued a
deeply flawed ruling that may weaken the Government's case. The three-judge
panel seemed to adopt Microsoft's arrogant claim that it has the right to
incorporate its browser, or any other software, into its Windows operating
system as long as doing so offers certain advantages to consumers. But if
the thinking behind this decision prevails, it could permit Microsoft to use
its monopoly power to crush competitors throughout the Internet. The Justice
Department thus needs to mount a vigorous counterattack invoking the full
force of antitrust laws."
** Infrastructure **
Title: Kennard Offers Deal to Encourage Advanced Networks
Source: Telecom AM
http://www.telecommunications.com/am/
Issue: Infrastructure
Description: Several of the Baby Bell companies have petitioned the FCC to
apply "regulatory forbearance" to their development of broadband networks.
The companies cite Section 706 of the Telecom Act that requires the FCC
encourage broadband development. The Bell companies
say regulations such as the ones requiring them to share the networks with
competitors are disincentives to building new networks. In a speech June 24,
FCC Chairman Bill Kennard is offering a deal: the FCC would waive some
discount resale or unbundling regulations if Bells, 1) give competitors use
of local loops, operations support systems (OSS) and space in central
offices to collocate equipment; 2) provide access to facilities under the
same terms and conditions that they give to themselves and "with the same
information about network technology and interfaces;" and 3) provide
interconnection to competing network providers so customers can talk to each
other. [See speech http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/spwek819.html]
** Arts **
Title: Guggenheim to Add Digital Art to Its Collection
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/06/cyber/artsatlarge/25artsatlarg...
Author: Matthew Mirapaul
Issue: Arts
Description: "In the most ambitious effort of its kind by a major American
cultural institution, the Guggenheim Museum is launching a $1 million
project to commission, acquire and display works of digital art. It marks
the first time that a top-rank U.S. museum has made a substantive commitment
to interactive, computer-based works of art, a genre already taken seriously
in Europe and Japan but one yet to be legitimized by the U.S. art
establishment. 'Everybody looks at the Guggenheim in the late 20th century
as redefining in global terms what the museum is, that it's not one site but
multiple sites,' said John G. Hanhardt, the museum's senior curator of film
and media arts. 'The Virtual Museum will not simply be a point of
transmission; it will become a location for innovation and a laboratory for
further transforming our thinking about what the museum is.'"
** Internet **
Title: Judge Issues Injunction Against State Internet Porn Law
Source: New York Times (CyberTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/06/cyber/articles/25censor.html
Author: Matt Richtel
Issue: Internet Regulation
Description: U.S. District Judge C. LeRoy Hansen, in New Mexico, issued a
preliminary injunction earlier this week to bar a state law scheduled to
take effect in July that would have made it a crime to electronically
transmit sexual images or content to minors. Judge Hansen indicated that the
law could possible violate First Amendment rights on free speech and
constitutional protections on interstate trade.
** Telephony **
Title: Phone Giants Team Up to Challenge Microsoft
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Matthew Rose, Amlar Latour & Quentin Hardy
Issue: Telephony
Description: In a challenge to Microsoft Corp., three mobile phone
companies, Nokia Corp, Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson and Motorola Inc., formed a
venture with Psion PLC, a British hand-held computer company, to build
software that could become "the brains" behind the next generation of mobile
phones. The four companies said they would produce an operating system
through a new company, Symbian Ltd., using Psion's technology. The
announcement marks a "milestone" in the growing market for "smart phones" -
combined with personal computers and mobile phones
** Lifestyles II **
Title: Talk About Fresh Vegetables! These Made Film Raters Blush
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Ernest Beck
Issue: Food Style
Description: (Yes, this was really in the paper!) Britain's Vegetarian
Society launched an ad campaign last week in 250 cinemas across Britain. "We
want to dispel the lingering myth that vegetarians don't enjoy themselves,"
says Chris Dessent, spokesman for the society. The ad, titled "Hot Dinner,"
conveys its message that vegetarians have better sex lives so vividly that
it has been slapped with an "over-15" rating. The film board says while the
ad is "clearly comical," the board opted for caution because younger viewers
might be embarrassed by the resemblance the vegetables and other foods have
to male and female genitalia. "The ad is a jolly good idea, but it isn't
just about the innocence of vegetables," argues Mike Bor, the board's
principal examiner. In the ad, "the camera zooms in on an asparagus tip
languidly dripping melted butter, then bread being kneaded vigorously, a pea
being fondled in its pod and a female hand firmly holding a bunch of raw
spaghetti. With sensual, classical-sounding music playing in the background,
the advertisement closes with the tagline: 'Become a real food lover.'" This
time, the Meat and Livestock Commission said they won't be dragged into a
debate over which group has better love lives. "They do their thing, and we
do ours," quips meat spokesman Jon Bullock. "We try to be more subtle."
*********