Digital Realty will buy DuPont Fabros in a $7.6 billion data center deal, the companies said in a Friday news release. The all-stock transaction is expected to close in the second half of this year, subject to customary conditions including shareholder and regulatory approvals, they said. The deal enhances the companies’ ability to serve top metropolitan areas, expands the companies’ products and provides cost efficiencies, they said. “The addition of [DuPont] should enhance [Digital Realty’s] growth prospects, as it's acquiring an asset that's growing at +10% per year, with recent momentum including a 28.8 MW lease signed by who we believe to be [Apple],” Wells Fargo analysts wrote investors Friday. “Our sense is this customer relationship will only grow.”

SiriusXM will pay $480 million to buy 19 percent of Pandora’s outstanding common shares, SiriusXM said in a Friday announcement. Under the deal, which will land SiriusXM three seats on the Pandora board, including that of chairman, SiriusXM is making a “strategic investment” in Pandora that's “a unique opportunity” to enter “the ad-supported digital radio business, a space where SiriusXM does not play today,” said CEO Jim Meyer in a statement. “Pandora's large user base and its ability to provide listeners with a personalized music experience are tremendous assets.” Nearly two years ago, senior SiriusXM executives told investors not to expect the company to enter the streaming audio marketplace anytime soon (see 1507280011). With a strategic review complete, Pandora said it's selling Ticketfly to Eventbrite for $200 million in a deal to close next quarter that's expected to include a deal letting the streaming radio service "substantially broaden the scale of its ticketing opportunities."

Consolidation remains a “top priority” for Sprint and T-Mobile, but Sprint parent SoftBank and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom “will dictate the moves,” Macquarie Capital emailed investors. Questions include which company needs the other more and which gets the premium, analyst Amy Yong wrote. Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son recently raised $93 billion from high-profile backers for his SoftBank’s Vision Fund and Son will now likely focus on Sprint, Yong said Monday. “DT, on the other hand, will likely wait for the right deal, offering both scale benefits and upside participation,” she said. “Things could progress swiftly with [board of director] and independent members’ approval; Softbank, Sprint, and T-Mobile all have 5 independent board members, while DT’s entire supervisory board is independent.”

AT&T agreed to buy Brocade’s Vyatta network operating system organization as the carrier virtualizes its network, the carrier said in a Friday news release. AT&T will hire some employees from the Vyatta business, it said. The deal is expected to close in early summer, subject to closing conditions and before closing of Broadcom’s acquisition of Brocade. The acquisition will help AT&T deliver cloud or premises-based virtual network functions, said the carrier, forecasting it will virtualize and software-control 55 percent of its network by year-end, and 75 percent of its network by 2020.

Qualcomm extended to June 28 its cash tender offer to buy all outstanding shares of NXP (see 1610270028), it said in a Wednesday announcement. About 14 percent of outstanding NXP common shares have been “validly tendered,” said Qualcomm. Bloomberg reported investors are pressuring NXP to renegotiate with Qualcomm and raise its $110-a-share purchase offer. NXP didn't respond.

Extreme Networks will pay $100 million for Avaya’s networking business after winning a bid in an auction by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Extreme expects to close the deal on or shortly after July 1, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory OKs, the company said. Avaya announced Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January. In March, the FTC said it won’t challenge the acquisition (see 1703270021).

Amazon and Dish Network may have overlapping IoT interests, bolstering speculation that Amazon Web Services could be an anchor customer for Dish's planned IoT network, Citigroup's Michael Rollins wrote investors Tuesday. He said Dish's IoT network decision (see 1703080026) "could make a lot of sense" since IoT standards should let companies use higher power to increase cell radius, decreasing the number of cell sites needed, and network infrastructure likely could be converted into a 5G network. Dish likely is looking to maintain optionality for its spectrum and interested in monetizing spectrum holdings, and Amazon is interested in expanding AWS offerings and differentiating from competitors, the analyst said: An Amazon/Dish partnership would allow the two companies to share risk and leverage high-cost fixed assets they separately own. Possible models could include a platform company like Amazon being a strategic investor in the network, or an outright acquisition of a wireless network or spectrum, Rollins said. A nationwide IoT/IP network could run over Amazon Web Services, and numerous Amazon products would benefit from having low-bandwidth communications or an IoT platform, he said.

Acquiring Wave Broadband will let RCN Telecom Services expand its broadband-related services to the West Coast, RCN parent TPG Capital said Monday, announcing the $2.37 billion deal. In a news release, TPG said it expects to close on the takeover in the second half of 2017, pending regulatory approval. It said Wave and RCN combined will be the sixth largest cable ISP, operating in seven of the nation's 10 largest cities. It said Wave will continue to operate as a branded entity out of its Washington state headquarters, with founder and CEO Steve Weed becoming an RCN director. TPG bought RCN and Grande Communications last year (see 1611160023), with those transactions creating a regional operator in the East Coast, Chicago and Texas.

Former FCC and Justice Department antitrust heads rejected a possible Sprint/T-Mobile, as a T-Mobile executive talked up potential synergies. Such a deal would hurt competition and raise prices for consumers, ex-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and former DOJ Antitrust Division Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer wrote in a Friday commentary for CNBC. After the FCC and DOJ said no to AT&T's buying T-Mobile in 2011, T-Mobile revamped its pricing and products, spurring rivals to match them to consumers' benefit, the former officials said. Later, Baer and Wheeler told Sprint owner SoftBank that they wouldn’t support an acquisition of T-Mobile. SoftBank may believe it will find “more sympathetic ears in the new administration,” Baer and Wheeler said. “But the merger made no sense before, and it makes no sense today.” Free Press also opposed the possible wireless deal (see 1705120050). Democratic FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny tweeted that the remarks had "excellent points re value of competition to consumers in the wireless market." Monday at a J.P. Morgan investor conference, T-Mobile Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said possible $30 billion synergy estimates for a Sprint/T-Mobile may be conservative, said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche in a research note. “These synergies would include traditional hard cost synergies from combining networks, with the ability for capex avoidance down the road as they leverage their combined spectrum,” the analyst wrote. Carter said integration costs could be at least $10 billion, Fritzsche said. A recording of Carter’s remarks wasn’t available.

TDK completed its acquisition of InvenSense for $1.3 billion cash, the companies said Thursday in a joint announcement. “Sensors are viewed as an important IoT-enabling technology, and sensor products and the technology portfolio of TDK will expand dramatically as a result of its acquisition of InvenSense,” they said. “TDK will be able to create innovative next-generation products and provide a new platform with sensor fusion that combines various sensor technologies and software, so that it will be able to target more business opportunities as a strong player capable of providing a broad range of sensor solutions.” TDK will run InvenSense as a subsidiary and keep its management intact, the companies said.