DealBook Briefing: Comcast Gave Up Fox. Now It’s All Eyes on Sky.

DealBook Briefing: Comcast Gave Up Fox. Now It’s All Eyes on Sky.

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Disney won Fox. Will it get Sky, too?

Comcast announced yesterday that it would abandon its bid for most of 21st Century Fox. That hands Rupert Murdoch’s media company to Disney, the other side in a complex bidding war.

But Comcast and Disney have another battle, over control of the British satellite broadcaster Sky. (Comcast and Fox, meaning Disney by proxy, are bidding for the company.) As Elizabeth Winkler of the WSJ points out, common sense might suggest that Disney should save money by ceding Sky. But Disney’s C.E.O., Bob Iger, describes Sky as a “crown jewel.”

Disney appears to have the upper hand, because the Fox assets it’s buying include a 39 percent stake in Sky. Both companies would prefer to own the broadcaster outright.

More Disney news: Peter Rice, the president of 21st Century Fox, is reportedly being considered to oversee much of Disney’s TV business when its Fox deal closes.

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Today’s DealBook Briefing was written by Andrew Ross Sorkin in New York, and Jamie Condliffe and Amie Tsang in London.

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Trump’s swipe at the Fed could backfire

Presidents don’t traditionally comment on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. But President Trump yesterday told CNBC that he is “not thrilled” about its interest-rate increases. (Two so far this year, with two more planned.)

His outburst may in fact lock in those planned rate rises, as Marc Sumerlin, who advised President George W. Bush, told the WSJ:

If the president publicly tells a Fed chair to stop, they have to keep going. Trump’s being counterproductive to his own goal because any time a president says publicly to stop, a central bank can’t.

And Daniel Moss of Bloomberg Opinion argues that Mr. Trump should leave the Fed’s chairman, Jerome Powell, to do his job:

Over the past 18 months, many have tried to reconcile political instability with markets and economies that remain above the fray. The answer may be simple: Trump actually isn’t in charge of that; Powell is.

It looks like Sinclair won’t buy Tribune

America’s largest television operator had hoped to buy its rival, Tribune Media, for $3.5 billion. The F.C.C. made some helpful-seeming rule changes. But then it raised “serious concerns,” and now the deal looks increasingly doomed.

More, from Edmund Lee of the NYT:

In light of the Federal Communications Commission’s draft order this week questioning whether Sinclair was sufficiently transparent in how it represented the deal to regulators and whether a merger would be in the public interest, Tribune said in a statement Thursday that it was “evaluating its implications and assessing all of our options.”

Casualties of the trade war are lining up

President Trump’s efforts to redefine global trade are still relatively young. But effects are showing:

■ Alcoa, the 130-year-old aluminum producer, says aluminum tariffs imposed at the beginning of June are raising its costs and may hurt its earnings.

Facebook’s still flummoxed by fake news

The social network has come under intense scrutiny since it became mired in misinformation and state-sponsored meddling during the 2016 election. But its policies to deal with noxious content seem confused.

More from Farhad Manjoo’s column in the NYT:

If a post contains a factual inaccuracy, it would not be removed, but it may be shown to very few people, reducing its impact. On the other hand, if the misinformation has been determined to be inciting imminent violence, Facebook will remove it — even if it’s not hate speech. On the other other hand, if a site lies repeatedly, spouts conspiracy theories or even incites violence, it can maintain a presence on the site, because ultimately, there’s no falsehood that will get you kicked off Facebook.

All of this fails a basic test: It’s not even coherent. It is a hodgepodge of declarations and exceptions and exceptions to the exceptions.

Revolving door

Paramount fired Amy Powell, the president of its television unit, over inappropriate comments. (Hollywood Reporter)

Darren Campili will leave Deutsche Bank to join the health care investment banking team at Barclays. (Bloomberg)

Prabir Adarkar, Uber’s head of finance, is leaving for DoorDash, a food delivery start-up. (FT)

The speed read

Deals

■ SoftBank is reportedly seeking a $1 billion stake in the world’s most valuable A.I. start-up, SenseTime Group of China. (Bloomberg)

■ Saudi Aramco is in discussions to acquire one of the world’s largest petrochemicals companies. (WSJ)

■ Kimberly-Clark may offload its European tissues business, for up to $1.2 billion. (Reuters)

Politics and policy

■ House Republicans are preparing to extend tax cuts. The Senate isn’t interested. (WSJ)

■ President Trump’s latest overture to Vladimir Putin surprised the director of national intelligence. (NYT)

■ Microsoft has blocked hacking attempts against three congressional candidates this year. (The Hill)

■ A U.S.-funded broadcaster used Facebook ads to target U.S. citizens — perhaps illegally. (NYT)

Tech

■ Amazon’s antitrust critics are gaining ground in Washington. (Information)

■ Didi Chuxing and SoftBank aim to launch a taxi-hailing platform in Japan before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Softbank’s C.E.O, Masayoshi Son, said Japan was “stupid” for banning ride-hailing. (FT)

■ Autonomous cars raise tough questions for cities. (NYT)

■ Microsoft is now a strong second in cloud computing. (NYT)

Best of the rest

■ Mark Zuckerberg secretly called President Trump to congratulate him on his election victory. (Buzzfeed)

■ A New Zealand company let its employees work four days instead of five for the same pay. They were just as productive. (NYT)

■ How the Geek Squad saved Best Buy. (Bloomberg)

■ Wells Fargo’s latest headache: pet insurance refunds. (WSJ)

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(Original source)