Comcast and AT&T have agreed to pay each other $1.5 billion if either party walks away from Comcast's $47 billion planned acquisition of AT&T's cable television unit, the companies said on Thursday.
AT&T (T) Chief Financial Officer Chuck Noski said the reciprocal break-up fee included standard provisions for when each party could legally walk away from the deal, but declined to get into specifics.
AT&T agreed late Wednesday to sell its AT&T Broadband unit to Comcast (CMCSK) in an all-stock deal that will create the nation's No. 1 cable television provider.
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U.S. slaps sanctions on Ukrainian goods: The United States will impose sanctions on $75 million worth of Ukrainian goods in retaliation for the continued piracy of U.S. music compact disc and other optical media products, a spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Thursday.
The action follows repeated warnings that the United States would impose sanctions unless Ukraine stopped the illegal reproduction of the products within its borders.
The U.S. industry estimates annual losses from Ukrainian piracy at more than $200 million.
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Wireless license pact: Legislation to authorize a settlement in the NextWave wireless license debacle is probably dead for the year, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said.
Under the terms of the proposed settlement, NextWave would give up claims to wireless licenses in exchange for more than $5 billion, while the government would receive $10 billion, funded by Verizon Wireless and partners of AT&T Wireless (AWE) and Cingular Wireless, who bid $15.85 billion for the licenses in January.
To be implemented, the pact requires the House and Senate to pass legislation by Dec. 31 to authorize the government to enter into the settlement, pay NextWave to abandon its claims to the licenses and insulate it from lengthy legal challenges.
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Jobless claims drop: Fewer Americans filed new claims for unemployment insurance, the third weekly decline in a row, raising the hope that the flurry of layoffs hitting workers after the terror attacks is abating.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that for the workweek ending Dec. 15, new claims for jobless benefits dipped by a seasonally adjusted 11,000 to 384,000, the lowest level since July 28.
Even with these declines, economists warn that the country is still in for a period of rising unemployment.
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Buy out: Canal Plus, Vivendi Universal's pay-television arm, hopes to finalize a deal to buy Stream in the next few days, Canal Plus Chief Executive Pierre Lescure said.
Vivendi (V) plans to merge Stream into Telepiu, creating a single pay-television force in Italy and bringing to an end a fierce and expensive battle between the two operators for subscribers.
Lescure said a combined Stream/Telepiu would still suffer heavy losses next year, but would break even at a core earnings or EBITDA level in 2004.
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Joint venture: Univision Communications said it agreed to join Grupo Televisa and Venevision in a pact by the leading Spanish-language media companies to penetrate the Hispanic market in the United States, with Televisa taking a $375 million equity stake in Univision.
Univision (UVN) said it agreed to buy Televisa's regional music recording business, and agreed to buy Fonovisa for 6 million shares and 100,000 warrants. Univision and Televisa also agreed to form a joint venture to leverage Televisa's satellite and pay-TV programming in the United States.
Under the pact, Univision's three networks -- Univision, Telefutura and Galavision -- will have exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to Televisa and Venevision Spanish-language programming through 2017.
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Faster access: Sony said it will ally with Yahoo Japan and Softbank to offer new broadband network services for its PlayStation 2 game box.
The new service, which is set to be launched next spring, will allow users at home to have access to a wide range of content, including auctions and financial services, from Yahoo Japan through faster Internet access.
The news comes only ten days after Sony (SNE) joined hands with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone to introduce new online game services next April.
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Briefly told: Sky Dayton, the founder of Earthlink (ELNK), today will unveil Boingo Wireless, which will offer users flat-rate access to high-speed wireless networks at more than 750 locations.... Unwired (UNWR) said it would buy IWO Holdings for about $459 million in stock, expanding into the U.S. Northeast.
AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
