Ownership

The Big Four—Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Alphabet—are unquestionably in the government’s crosshairs. Yet their stocks are more valuable than ever, which suggests that investors, at least, are betting that the antitrust hullaballoo won’t add up to much. Why?  One reason is that in going after Big Tech, trustbusters are going after some of the most popular companies in America. Surveys routinely find that Amazon is the most trusted company in the US, with Google and Apple not far behind in the “most admired” rankings.

If UScellular were to sell some of its wireless assets, “under most scenarios that’s an opportunity and a positive for where we’re trying to go,” said Charlie Ergen, chairman of the board of DISH Network and

AT&T appears to be in the early stages of improving its 5G network across parts of Oklahoma, based on the company's latest filings with the Federal Communications Commission. AT&T told the FCC that it reached an agreement with Pioneer Telephone Cooperative to acquire some of that company's 700MHz and PCS spectrum licenses in Oklahoma. "By acquiring control of the ...

LICT, a publicly-held company with several rural service provider subsidiaries, plans to spin off one of those subsidiaries into a separately traded entity. The subsidiary, currently known as Michigan Broadband, will be known as MachTen after the spinoff, which is expected to occur on August 14, 2023. The separation will make LICT and MachTen completely independent, publicly traded companies.

Republic Wireless, once a pioneer in the “Wi-Fi first” movement, will stop operating as a stand-alone wireless brand. Dish acquired the business in 2021 and is moving all Republic customers over to Boost Infinite.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has been a leading voice exposing how Musk’s leadership and the changes he is making to “X” have led to a proliferation of hate speech on the platform. While Musk proclaims himself to be an advocate for free speech, his latest tactics involve making brazen verbal and legal threats against CCDH, all while allowing racist, antisemitic content to proliferate on his platform. Rese

A collective cry is breaking out as authors, artists and internet publishers realize that the generative-AI phenomenon sweeping the globe is built partly on the back of their work. The emerging awareness has set up a war between the forces behind the inputs and the outputs of these new artificial-intelligence tools, over whether and how content originators should be compensated. The disputes threaten to throw sand into the gears of the AI boom just as it seems poised to revolutionize the global economy.

Congresswoman Lisa McClain (R-MI) introduced the Anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Espionage via Social Media (ACES) to counter the national security threat posed by the Chinese platform TikTok. This bill forces TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest all its assets in America. This bill:

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are releasing a draft update of the Merger Guidelines (Draft Guidelines), which describe and guide the agencies’ review of mergers and acquisitions to determine compliance with federal antitrust laws. The goal of this update is to better reflect how the agencies determine a merger’s effect on competition in the modern economy and evaluate proposed mergers under the law. Both agencies encourage the public to review the draft and provide feedback through a public comment period that will last 60 days.

Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, faced more than three hours of criticism and ridicule from Republicans in a House hearing, as emboldened critics increasingly put pressure on the agency for its crackdown on the growing power of tech giants. During the highly partisan hearing, Republicans accused Chair Khan, who has carried out an aggressive agenda of lawsuits and investigations against tech companies, of “harassing” businesses.