Media Navel Gaze: May 27, 2014
The Week Unpeeled
The New York Times management-change story seemed to escape much of the spotlight by the end of last week with attention turned to mergers and some high-profile corporate charges, allegations and fines, with AT&T agreeing to acquire DirecTV for $49 billion, blurring the lines between mobile, cable, video and pay TV.
Elsewhere:
- Google was reportedly in talks to buy Twitch a live video-streaming service;
- Credit Suisse pleaded guilty to criminal tax charges in helping customers evade taxes;
- Barclays was fined last week 26 million pounds for gold rigging;
- The US Justice Department, meanwhile, charged Chinese military officials for allegedly hacking US computer computers in an effort to steal trade secrets;
- Time and Sports Illustrated have started to put ads on the cover, a first for a big publisher in the US (put you kinda have to really look for it under the bar code) put a significant step nonetheless;
- Thailand's military staged a coup, the second time in about a decade that the army has ousted the government; and
- The markets rallied last week with the S&P closing at a record high of 1,900 and the Dow at 16,606.
