Bloomberg

Sinclair Broadcast Group’s bid to purchase Tribune Media hinges on spinning off TV stations to comply with US limits on broadcast ownership. Yet its proposals to sell stations from Pennsylvania to California are drawing fresh scrutiny as critics, including business rivals, say some of the transactions are designed to evade the ownership rules. In one case, two Texas stations are to be sold to a partner company that until recently was controlled by the estate of the mother of Sinclair’s controlling shareholders.

21st Century Fox determined that a deal with Comcast has more antitrust risk than its pact with Disney, even after a judge chose not to block AT&T’s takeover of Time Warner. Fox’s management and lawyers — while reviewing Disney’s revised offer in June — concluded that antitrust concerns could scuttle a transaction with Comcast.

Apparently, Walt Disney Co. is close to winning US antitrust approval for its $71 billion deal for 21st Century Fox Inc.’s entertainment assets, creating a potentially insurmountable hurdle for a rival bid from Comcast. The Justice Department is set to approve the deal in as soon as two weeks, according to an unnamed source. Disney has agreed to sell some assets to address competition problems stemming from the tie-up. 

The US Supreme Court agreed to hear Apple's bid to kill an antitrust lawsuit over the market for iPhone apps in a case that could shield e-commerce companies from consumer claims over high commissions. The lawsuit accuses Apple of monopolizing the app market so it can charge excessive commissions of 30 percent. Apple, backed by the Trump administration, says it can’t be sued because the commission is levied on the app developers, not the purchasers who are suing.