Seth Fiegerman

Yahoo and AOL are expected to form a new company under Verizon called Oath. The new company is expected to launch summer 2017 after Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo is completed. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's CEO, is not expected to join the new company.

"I'm surprised the tech industry isn't speaking out more forcefully," said Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator. "My guess," he said, "is there are bigger problems people are focused on right now." The industry has entered legal fights against President Trump over immigration and transgender rights. At the same time, it's trying to build bridges with the new administration on key business issues like tax reform and regulations.

A month into the new Federal Communications Commission administration, former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said, "It's going the way I feared." In particular, Wheeler points to the FCC taking steps to weaken network neutrality. As chairman, Wheeler slammed wireless companies like AT&T for violating net neutrality rules by letting customers stream content from its video service, DirecTV, without counting toward data plans. That effectively makes third-party video services more costly. But this month, the FCC dropped all investigations into the issue.

Chairman Ajit Pai's FCC also voted recently to undo a net neutrality transparency rule requiring smaller broadband providers to disclose details on data caps and fees. "Conservatives used to be against letting big companies determine who gets on the broadcast airwaves, but now they are for allowing big companies to determine who gets on the Internet [and] on what terms," Wheeler said. "It seems to me the lobbyists are winning out over core principles here," he added.

President Donald Trump's smartphone and tweets are now the subject of a Senate inquiry. Sens Tom Carper (D-DE) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) sent a letter to the Secretary of Defense requesting answers on whether President Trump is using an encrypted smartphone in office, or an unsecured personal device. "The national security risks of compromising a smartphone used by a senior government official, such as the President of the United States, are considerable," the senators wrote in the letter. The letter cites multiple reports, which claim President Trump has continued to use his "old, unsecured Android phone." Many of the tweets posted from Trump's personal account, @RealDonaldTrump, since taking office are also marked as coming from "Twitter for Android."