U.K. unlikely to block Comcast-Sky merger
Britain’s culture secretary said Monday that he was unlikely to block the U.S. cable giant Comcast’s proposed takeover of the British satellite broadcaster Sky, the latest twist in a merger battle between Comcast and Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox.
In a statement, the culture secretary, Matt Hancock, said he was not inclined to intervene in Comcast’s $30.7 billion bid for Sky because “the proposed merger does not raise concerns in relation to public interest considerations which would meet the threshold for intervention.”
Hancock’s remarks came amid a protracted effort by Fox to win full control of Sky, a company in which Murdoch’s company already holds a 39 percent stake. Fox submitted its current bid for Sky in December 2016, but the company has faced a series of regulatory roadblocks since then.
Comcast and Fox are in something of a bidding war for Sky, which has 23 million subscribers spread across multiple European countries, owns lucrative rights to broadcast English Premier League soccer games and other professional sports matches and has an online streaming service.
For Comcast, the Sky bid offers another benefit: It complicates Fox’s plan to sell most of its businesses to The Walt Disney Co. for $52.4 billion.
Microsoft extends EU data protection
Microsoft says it’s committing to giving users worldwide the same data and privacy rights being offered to Europeans under new regulations there.
That means no matter where you live, you’ll be able to see what Microsoft collects about you and correct or delete that information if necessary. You’ll also be able to object to the use of data for marketing and other purposes.
Some companies have been limiting those options to only people in the European Union, where the new rules take effect on Friday. Facebook, for instance, has said it’s offering the same settings and controls worldwide, but has stopped short of promising European-style rights around the globe.
Microsoft made its promise explicit in a blog post and new privacy policy Monday.
Ameren to build major wind farm
Ameren Missouri announced plans Monday for a 400-megawatt wind farm in rural northeast Missouri, creating enough power to serve 120,000 homes within two years.
Ameren said its High Prairie Wind Farm will be the largest in the state. Ajay Arora, vice president of power operations and energy management at Ameren Missouri, called it a significant step toward Ameren’s goal of reducing carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050.
“What’s most important for our customers is to have a balanced energy mix,” Arora said. “That would be a combination of hydro, nuclear, natural gas, coal, wind and solar.”
Plans call for 175 450-foot-tall wind turbines on land in Adair and Schuyler counties, near the Iowa border about 200 miles north of St. Louis.
Groundbreaking is expected in summer of 2019, and the turbines are expected to be operational by 2020, Arora said.
Consumer Reports questions Tesla brakes
Long emergency stopping distances, difficult-to-use controls and a harsh ride stopped Tesla’s Model 3 electric car from getting a recommended buy rating from Consumer Reports.
While the magazine said the car has exhilarating acceleration and handling, testers were troubled by its 152-foot average stopping distance from 60 miles per hour in emergency braking tests. The magazine said the distance was worse than any modern car it has tested, and is about 7 feet longer than a Ford F-150, a full-size pickup truck that weighs about twice as much as a Model 3.
Tesla said in a statement that its own tests found 60-to-zero braking distances averaging 133 feet. It says stopping distances are affected by road surface, weather, tire temperature, brake conditioning and other factors. It also says it continually does software updates to improve factors such as stopping distance.
The Model 3 is Tesla’s first attempt to appeal to mass-market buyers. The car that starts at $35,000 but can run as high as $78,000 has been plagued by production delays.
Consumer Reports said Tesla’s stopping distance was 21 feet longer than the class average for luxury compact sedans.