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Liberty Global is poised to launch a tender offer for the nearly 50% of Telenet Group, the largest provider of broadband cable services in Belgium, that it doesn't already own, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that would value the Belgian cable company at roughly $5.2 billion. The U.S. company, which already owns just over 50% of Telenet, plans to publicly announce its bid for the rest as early as Sept 20, the people said. Bidding for all of Telenet is the latest move by the Englewood (CO) cable group, which is run by Chief Executive Michael Fries, to increase its presence in Europe. In 2011, Liberty Global agreed to buy German cable provider Kabel Baden-Wuerttemberg for roughly $4.5 billion, following the acquisition two years earlier of KBW's larger rival Unitymedia.

The Federal Trade Commission intends to decide by the end of the year whether to bring legal action against Google for anticompetitive practices, Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the commission, said.

In remarks to reporters after a luncheon address to an antitrust symposium sponsored by Georgetown Law School, Chairman Leibowitz said the commission was still on track to meet a deadline that he disclosed this year. “I think that we’re going to try to get this resolved by the end of the year,” he said. He declined to comment on whether the FTC staff, which has been gathering evidence in the investigation, has made a recommendation to the five-person commission about whether to proceed with an enforcement action. “We have not decided as a commission what we’re going to do, where we’re going to go with respect to Google,” he said. “We’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing – we’re weighing the evidence, we’re thinking it through, in a collective, collaborative bipartisan way.” During prepared remarks, Chairman Leibowitz said that if the FTC decides to issue a complaint against Google, “our rules of administrative litigation will ensure Google a trial within eight months, much faster than in the federal district courts.” No decision has been made, however, about where a case would be filed, he added.

AT&T is spearheading "No Text on Board Pledge Day." In the past five years 35,000 American teens have died in automobile crashes according to the website Dosomething.org. That's 6,000 deaths per year, or 18 per day. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood calls texting while driving a "national epidemic." AT&T is reaching out to teenage drivers to change this behavior. The company's message is simple: Don't text while you drive. AT&T has invested tens of millions of dollars this year as part of a national advertising campaign called "It Can Wait" to help bring this issue to a national level.

Michael Drobac, the former director of government relations at Netflix, is joining Patton Boggs to serve as a senior policy adviser in the firm's technology and communications group. In his new role, Drobac will advise clients on policy matters in the Internet and e-commerce industries. He formerly served as the director of government relations at Netflix, where he established the company's Washington office and was its first director. Drobac left Netflix in January, according to his LinkedIn profile. While at the online movie subscription company, Drobac lobbied on issues including net neutrality, privacy, tax and copyright rules.