Communications Breakdown: Week 22 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Sunday, June 06, 2021

CORPORATE

Virgin Media / O2 merger closes, launches as Virgin Media O2, 18k employees, to invest GBP 10b in 5 yr, plans new FMC offers - FT: to open network for wholesale (candidates: Sky, Vodafone), to co-invest with partners to add 7-8m HP to FTTP
Shareholder advisory service Glass Lewis calls on shareholders to vote against remuneration report& Chair Larry Romrell over CEO payment 2020 ($52m) at AGM 210616

Vivendi: Rumor: Pershing Square Capital Managemen (Bill Ackman, hedge fund) interested in 10% UMG stake at $40b valuation - Confirms talks
Stack Overflow: Acquired by Prosus, $1.8b; >100 MAU, 52m Q&As
G7 adopt plan to back minimum global corporate tax of 15%, to end national digital services taxes; to be approved by G20 July 2021

5G: AD Little for Ericsson report Network Slicing: A go-to-market guide to capture high revenue potential; for business market (advantages to Private Wireless: less on-campus equipment, off-campus coverage; largest opportunities in Healthcare, Government, Transportation, Energy & utilities, Media & entertainment, less in Financial services, Retail, Agriculture) and AR/VR for consumers
LEO: China Satellite Network Group (= Chinese state) plans 13k sats for BB in rural areas & on sea

T-Mobile NL launches Unlimited 5G & Entertainment, 50 eur/mo in 24 mo contract for Unlimited 5G (stand-alone 35 EUR/mo, within family 25) + Netflix (2 screens, stand-alone 11 EUR/mo) + RTL Videoland (2 screens, stand-alone 8 EUR/mo), also for existing Netflix and/or Videoland subs (can be migrated to the new package) (22% of all HH have >= 2 SVOD subscriptions, 13% have Netflix + Videoland)
Telia SE distr deal with Netflix, C More: package with Unlimited 5G, 500 SEK/mo (EUR 50) during first year, 660 SEK/mo (EUR 65) during second year

Office building 825 Third Avenue deploys smart windows from View, with View Immersive Experience solution (transforms windows into transparent, digital screens designed to enable immersive communications, increase natural light, improve human health, reduce energy consumption by blocking heat & glare)
Orange PL launches blockchain-IoT SIM cards to operate smart cities: provide access control (for first repsonders, smart bikes, etc) managed by smartphones

ViacomCBS: To launch AVOD tier Essential Plan 210607, 5 $/mo, replaces CBS All Access (no mobile downloads, no local live CBS stations; no support for 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision)

Twitter: Launches Twitter Blue in Canada (3.5 CAD/mo) & Australia (4.5 AUD/mo): exclusive features Undo Tweet )max 30 sec), Bookmark Folders (organise tweets), Reader Mode (for long threads), customize Twitter app icons, access to color themes, dedicated customer support - Launches 30-sec full-screen ads in Fleets [see 201117] - Launches Birdwatch: crowdsourced notes added to misleading tweets [see 210125]
FT: EU plans bloc-wide digital wallet with single online ID, store payment details, passwords, pay utility bills, access via fingerprint or retina scan