Their agencies hope to issue joint takeover guidelines this year, DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Jonathan Kanter announced with FTC Chair Lina Khan Tuesday. The rise in mergers and acquisitions has been a key driver in consolidation, including in tech, and the M&A guidelines should reflect modern challenges, they told a livestreamed news conference.

One of the looming questions Tuesday from Microsoft's announced plans to buy Activision Blizzard was what would become of Sony's access to Activision Blizzard's third-party content support for the PlayStation 5 after the game publisher comes under the control of the owner of the rival Xbox platform. The preliminary signals Microsoft put out for public consumption suggested Sony would experience business as usual.

Consumers are flocking to streaming services, “and advertisers are following them,” said an eMarketer study on U.S. video trends to watch in 2022. The average North American internet user more than doubled the number of subscription VOD services they used from 2016, to an average 8.8 in Q2 2021, eMarketer said, citing TiVo data.

Sponsors of a bill that would ban Big Tech platforms from self-preferencing their products are optimistic about passage, but two Republican holdouts shared reservations in interviews last week. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S-2992) is set for markup Thursday after being held over one week. The bill would bar dominant platforms from acting to prevent rival products from competing on their platforms.

Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) is making a final attempt to delay launch of 5G in the C-band by Verizon and AT&T starting Wednesday, warning of the threat to radio altimeters from wireless transmissions. Industry observers said it’s unlikely AT&T and Verizon will again delay launch, which has been on hold since Dec. 5.

CTA is “aware of media reports” that some who participated in person at CES 2022 tested positive for COVID-19 upon returning home, emailed a spokesperson Thursday, responding to our queries about a Korea Herald report that Samsung dispatched chartered flights to Las Vegas to bring home about 20 Samsung staff members and executives who tested positive and were stuck in town, unable to get on planes with a negative test. “We don’t have confirmation of the number of cases as it is extremely difficult to determine exactly when and where anyone contracted COVID-19,” said the CTA spokesperson.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. expects the chip industry’s supply chain “to maintain a higher level of inventory” in 2022, compared with “historical” trends, due to “the industry's continued need to ensure supply security,” said CEO C.C. Wei on a Q4 call Thursday. TSMC had Q4 revenue in U.S. dollars of $15.74 billion, up 5.8% sequentially. The stock closed 5.3% higher Thursday at $139.19.

Virtual MVPD fuboTV will be the exclusive streaming platform in Canada for England’s Premier League soccer league beginning this season as part of a three-year deal, it said Thursday. It will show all 380 Premier League matches live on fuboTV and on its linear channel, Fubo Sports Network, it said.

State privacy bills are surfacing quickly as legislatures return for 2022 sessions. Washington state Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D) will try for the fourth straight year to pass a privacy bill, and many other state legislators introduced bills this and last week. Experts are also watching California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) implementation this year.

Consumers spent $204.5 billion online Nov. 1-Dec. 31, an 8.5% bump from 2020, amid inflation and billions of out-of-stock messages, said Adobe in its final 2021 e-commerce holiday sales season report Wednesday. December’s price increases marked the 19th consecutive month of year-on-year online inflation, following the record high of November 2021, when online prices increased 3.5% from November 2020, it said.