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[Commentary] In a soda market completely dominated by Coke and Pepsi, it wouldn't make much business sense to purchase Royal Crown Cola unless you also had plans to get your hands on Mountain Dew or Dr Pepper.
I'm guessing Japan's SoftBank has just such an idea in mind after announcing it'll spend about $20 billion to acquire 70% of Sprint Nextel Corp., the No. 3 wireless carrier in the United States. SoftBank would be crazy to pony up that kind of scratch for a perpetual place in the shadow of market leaders Verizon Wireless and AT&T. But the Sprint deal looks a whole lot more intriguing if you also have plans to add other carriers to the fold. Or maybe even to acquire the No. 4 wireless service, T-Mobile USA, which is itself now gobbling up No. 5 MetroPCS. "I don't think SoftBank will be content to remain in the No. 3 spot," said Julien Blin, directing analyst for consumer electronics at Infonetics Research in Silicon Valley. "They're going to want to move up to No. 2 or even No. 1."
Will SoftBank buy other U.S. telecom firms after Sprint?
Sprint Nextel, which agreed to sell a 70 percent stake to Softbank for $20.1 billion, has no immediate plans to take over Clearwire, said people with direct knowledge of the situation. Softbank’s and Sprint’s priority is to close the deal they announced yesterday, which will take six to eight months, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Until the deal is completed, the companies can’t engage in extraordinary activities such as further mergers or acquisitions, these people said.
Sprint Said Not to Plan Buying Clearwire After Softbank Deal
The deal with SoftBank gives Sprint Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse the firepower to bring renewed competition to the U.S. mobile- phone industry, creating benefits for consumers and challenges for AT&T and Verizon Wireless. SoftBank will deposit $8 billion into Hesse’s war chest. The money will allow the CEO to improve Sprint’s network, compete for the latest smartphones, reduce debt and potentially make acquisitions. The deal has major risks for both sides. For Softbank, the agreement will mean taking on $19 billion in debt to expand into the U.S. market, where foreign companies have often fared poorly. Its stock plunged the most ever after the deal was made public. For Sprint, it will still have to compete against rivals that are twice as large, with the additional burden of answering to owners 14 time zones ahead.
Sprint $8 Billion War Chest Threatens AT&T-Verizon Reign
Since April, most of the TV ads supporting Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have come from outside groups, not from Romney's own campaign. And those groups raised more than half of their money from secret donors, according to a six-month study of ads.
From April through September, Romney for President aired slightly more than 144,000 ads on broadcast TV. The outside groups supporting him ran nearly 250,000. That enabled Romney to start saving cash for a last-minute TV blitz, which has just now begun. This is the first presidential campaign since the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling of 2010. And it's giving us a good look at how that decision and other recent court cases have changed politics.
Study: Secret Donors Significantly Fueling Pro-Romney TV Ads
No one comes to Las Vegas expecting anything in moderation. But to turn on the television these days is to shatter even Vegas-size notions of excess. More political commercials have been broadcast in this city than anywhere else, giving it the dubious distinction of being the most saturated media market in the most expensive year in American politics.
And late last week, when the count passed 73,000, Las Vegas set the record as the place with the most televised campaign advertisements in a single year. With the influx here and in other battleground states certain to become even heavier in the final three weeks of the campaign, this election is surpassing 2008 both in the sheer volume of ads and in the money spent. Media experts estimate that about $2.5 billion was spent nationwide on political advertising in 2008, and that this year the total could grow by a third, to as much as $3.3 billion. Commercials are flying at Nevadans at a rate of 10,000 per week. At least 98 different ads are in rotation, coming from “super PACs,” various Democratic and Republican committees, Congressional candidates, local candidates and, of course, President Obama and Mitt Romney. Local stations are shaving minutes off their news programs to accommodate the crush.
73,000 Political Ads Test Even a City of Excess
Mitt Romney and the Republican Party have begun a late push to raise tens of millions of dollars in the closing weeks of the election, cash that will finance a last-minute barrage of advertising that Romney’s aides believe is critical to beating President Barack Obama. In an e-mail to top donors and fund-raisers, Romney’s campaign said that it had raised $170 million in September, almost as much as the near-record $181 million raised by President Obama, but the campaign added that it needed to bring in even more money in October to capitalize on Romney’s surge in polls in swing states like Florida and Ohio.
Romney Raises $170 Million to Finance Final Push
[Commentary] I am a conservative Republican and first vice chairman emeritus of the GOP in one of the nation's famously Republican counties, Orange County. I will vote for Mitt Romney and will encourage others to do so. However, if he becomes our next president, I will join hands with millions of others to vigorously oppose his goal to eliminate federal funding for PBS.
The reasons for keeping funding are simple, if not readily apparent to Romney. Our nation's economic and social prosperity depends on a highly literate population. Not all children have access to the best schools or curricula. That's why PBS is so important. Today, PBS, along with its websites and mobile apps, is the nation's largest classroom. It is the No. 1 media content source for preschool teachers and the undisputed leader in children's programming. According to Nielsen, 82% of children ages 2 to 11 watch PBS, and 10 million children access pbskids.org every month. It is free for all who use it.
[Jo Ellen Chatham is co-chairman of the PBS SoCal (KOCE) board of trustees.]
Republicans for 'Sesame Street'
CBS announced a new agreement with President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves, extending his term through June 30, 2017. His old deal concluded in 2015.
Under the terms of the new agreement, Moonves’ salary remains at its current level. As before, he will continue to be eligible for an annual performance-based bonus and will receive equity-based compensation that further ties the value of the agreement to the performance of the company’s stock. At the end of his new term, Moonves will become eligible, at his discretion, to hold the position of an executive adviser to the company for an additional four years. In addition, during that term, Moonves has the option to establish a production company under CBS’s auspices.
Moonves came to CBS in 1995 as president of entertainment. He was promoted to president and CEO of CBS Television in 1998, became its chairman in 2003, and was later named co-president and co-chief operating officer of Viacom and chairman of CBS in 2004. In 2006, when Viacom split its businesses into two publicly traded companies, Moonves was named president and CEO of the newly formed CBS Corp.
Moonves Extends CBS Deal Through June ‘17
In Eric E. Schmidt’s future, his life will be a lot easier. His bed will wake him up when he cycles out of R.E.M. sleep. A driverless car will take him to work. Returning phone calls, scheduling events and other routine tasks will be taken care of by devices using artificial intelligence. A micro-robot he swallows will monitor his insides and alert his doctor if something is wrong. At night, a robot will go to parties in his place. “He’ll have a good time and report back in the morning,” said Mr. Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, speaking Monday at the company’s Zeitgeist sales conference in Paradise Valley, Ariz. Schmidt was describing to Google’s biggest advertisers and partners how technology can change the world, from tracking financial assets to education to measuring the results of non-profit initiatives. Some of the things he mentioned, like universal language translation and artificial intelligence, are Google projects. More important than making his daily life easier, he said, technology will open up the world to people who have never been connected, like those in developing countries.
The Future, as Imagined by Google
The United States and Israel inked an trade agreement that is designed to spur trade between the two countries and make it easier for American companies to export telecommunications equipment to Israel. The agreement aims to streamline the process that American and Israeli companies use to certify that their telecommunications equipment meets each country's technical requirements and regulations. As a result of the agreement, American-produced telecommunications equipment can enter the Israeli market if a recognized U.S. laboratory has deemed that the product conforms with Israeli technical requirements, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
US, Israel ink telecom trade agreement