Antitrust

The Federal Communications Commission has formally started the process for reviewing the proposed $39 billion merger between AT&T and T-Mobile USA that was announced last month.

The FCC has posted its public notice that establishes procedural rules for the review process and will allow the public to weigh in on the proposed merger. AT&T and T-Mobile will file their formal applications by the end of the month as the FCC considers transferring wireless licenses.

The agency is still not discussing specifics of the review process, but earlier today it held a press conference in which it … Read more

Google and the U.S. Department of Justice are said to be close to reaching a legal settlement over Google's intended $700 million acquisition of travel data company ITA Software, which was has been under scrutiny since the deal was announced last July.

Citing "people familiar with the matter," The Wall Street Journal reports that the proposal agreement, which would allow the purchase to go forward, is not finalized. That agreement, the Journal says, also lets the government keep an eye on Google for antitrust activities and could be made within days.

From the get-go, the proposed … Read more

Google could find itself the target of two separate antitrust probes launched by Ohio and Wisconsin, according to a story published today by Bloomberg.

Concerned over the search giant's business practices, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is "evaluating the facts to determine if it's something we want to review," his spokesman Dan Tierney told Bloomberg.

Tierney confirmed the information to CNET, saying that the attorney general's office is "reviewing the facts regarding the matter to determine if there's any action that needs to be taken."

Asked if the attorney general is looking … Read more

Apple CEO Steve Jobs was ordered by a judge yesterday to answer questions in a deposition related to an antitrust suit filed against the company in 2005 over its FairPlay DRM software.

Attorneys for Apple had argued that Jobs' testimony in this case would be repetitive of what has already been offered as part of the ongoing lawsuit. But presiding over the case known as the Apple iPod iTunes Antitrust Litigation, U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd ruled yesterday that this alone was not sufficient to preclude Jobs from testifying.

The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for … Read more

The usual suspects are already sharpening their knives against AT&T's announced acquisition of T-Mobile's U.S. business.

Within hours, the Media Access Project announced that "if approved, this deal would further increase costs and decrease choices for the public." Media reform group Free Press headlined its press release, "Consumers lose when there's less competition." And Public Knowledge condemned the deal as "unthinkable."

That sort of rhetoric is par for the course inside-the-beltway where, for some reason, every combination of business assets is presumed to be hostile to consumers. These … Read more

Motorola's plan to sell its wireless network business to Nokia Siemens Networks has been put on hold by Chinese antitrust officials.

Under the $1.2 billion deal announced last summer, Nokia Siemens Networks will acquire the unit from Motorola Solutions. But approval of the acquisition is hitting a snag in China, where antitrust regulators have extended their review period by 60 days, Motorola said today.

Antitrust approval is needed in each market affected by the deal, according to Bloomberg, and all other approvals were received by the end of last year.

When the deal was first announced last July, … Read more

The corporate wrangling over Web video standards, already a technically and legally complex matter, is getting a lot more complicated with the arrival of a Justice Department antitrust investigation.

Specifically, the DOJ is looking into whether the actions of patent licensing group MPEG LA are stifling a Google video encoding technology called VP8, The Wall Street Journal reported last night. The the California State Attorney General's office also is looking into the matter, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.

MPEG LA licenses patents for Web video encoding technology, including today's widely used H.264, on behalf of a … Read more

The new Republican members of both the House and Senate wasted no time following up on promises to undo the Federal Communications Commission's December vote to apply new "Net neutrality" rules to some broadband Internet access providers.

The new "Open Internet" rules (PDF) would prohibit blocking of lawful content, Web sites, applications, and devices and ban "unreasonable discrimination" in the handling of specific data packets. ("Open Internet" is the FCC's preferred term for Net neutrality.) A new transparency requirement would mandate detailed disclosures of network management practices.

Last week, the … Read more

Wael Ghonim, the Google product manager who helped pull together the popular demonstrations that forced Hosni Mubarak to step down as Egypt's president, is the hero of the hour. But not everywhere. For many in Silicon Valley, he's their worst nightmare.

On the record, Google's not talking about Ghonim or the question of employee activism. For his part, Ghonim told CBS's Katie Couric in an interview on Friday that his participation in the protests had no connection with his employer.

"They did not know anything about this and actually when I took the time off … Read more