Wall Street Journal

Gray TV to Buy Raycom in $3.65 Billion Deal

Gray Television has agreed to buy fellow television-station owner Raycom Media in a $3.65 billion deal that would create a company that reaches nearly a quarter of US TV households. Gray estimates it will be able to save $40 million in the first year after the deal closes by reducing station and corporate expenses.

AT&T Plots New Marketplace for TV and Digital Video Advertising

AT&T's advertising chief said the company’s acquisition of AppNexus is part of a strategy to build a first-of-its-kind marketplace for television and digital video advertising and give it more firepower against industry juggernauts Google and Facebook. AppNexus offers technology that helps advertisers buy ads, using automated software, across a range of websites and apps. The company also supplies technology to publishers so they can manage and sell ad space on their websites.

Supreme Court Clears Way for Sales Taxes on Internet Merchants

Internet retailers can be required to collect sales taxes in states where they have no physical presence, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision. Brick-and-mortar businesses have long complained that they are disadvantaged by having to charge sales taxes while many of their online competitors do not. States have said that they are missing out on tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue under a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that helped spur the rise of internet shopping. On June 21, the court overruled that ruling, Quill Corporation v.

Publisher of National Enquirer Subpoenaed in Michael Cohen Probe

Apparently, federal authorities have subpoenaed the publisher of the National Enquirer for records related to its $150,000 payment to a former Playboy model for the rights to her story alleging an affair with Donald Trump. The subpoena from Manhattan federal prosecutors requesting information from the publisher, American Media Inc., about its August 2016 payment to Karen McDougal is part of a broader criminal investigation of President Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.