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What you need to know about the Funimation and Crunchyroll merger
As the two anime giants converge expect to lose access to purchased Funimation content
It's been a long time coming, but Sony's Funimation is finally absorbing Crunchyroll while taking on the more popular name Crunchyroll for the brand, making things more confusing than they need to be. It appears Sony feels Crunchyroll is a more recognizable moniker, so even though this merger sounds like Crunchyroll is taking over, it's actually the other way around despite how Crunchyroll will retain its apps as Funimation's services disappear (as if the name change wasn't confusing enough). Sadly, the merger will affect users, especially those who have invested real dollars in content on Funimation.
Earlier this week, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau finally announced an integration with Oppo, a move that had been rumored since he took over product responsibilities for both companies. Although his initial forum post confirmed the two companies would remain separate entities, a few questions went unanswered. Luckily, we have a confirmation on one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the move.Although Lau has mostly been silent in the follow-up thread to his original post, he did respond to one question wondering whether either company would move to a new operating system (via 9to5Google). Outside of China, OnePlus devices will continue to use OxygenOS in the future. That's great news for pre-existing owners and anyone interested in picking up a OnePlus 9 or — eventually — a OnePlus 9T if and when that launches this fall.
The close corporate ties between OnePlus and Oppo have never been much of a secret, at least to anyone who studies the nitty-gritty of the mobile business-to-business world. Despite keeping a very distinct identity, they're both part of the same parent company, and have been more open about the resources that they share for the last six months. Today OnePlus dropped a bit more of the pretense, and said that it's going to "further integrate" with Oppo.
Fitbit devices will run Wear OS in the future
Signature Fitbit features will be available on existing Wear devices soon
Ever since Google bought Fitbit in 2019, we've been waiting to see what kind of effect that combination would have on both Fitbit's fitness-focused wearables and Google's own Wear OS. Today we know. At Google I/O, a Fitbit representative said it flat out: future Fitbit wearable devices will be running Wear OS.
Verizon sells off its AOL and Yahoo media properties, including Engadget and TechCrunch
The company lost about four billion dollars after its media push failed
For the last few years, some of the web's most long-running tech media publications have been owned by a giant telecom company. Verizon bought AOL in 2015 and Yahoo in 2017, which meant that websites like Engadget and TechCrunch were under its new Verizon Media umbrella. Today Verizon announced that it's selling off Verizon Media to a holding company, Apollo Global Management. The new organization will go by the old Yahoo name.
After some whiplash, Dish set to acquire Boost from T-Mobile
Virgin Mobile and Sprint's own prepaid customers will also move over
One of the laces left untied in the closure of the Sprint and T-Mobile merger was the condition that the combined carrier would sell prepaid entity Boost Mobile to Dish Network. Now, after a blip of a possibility that the satellite company would back out of negotiations, the two have officially locked into the divestiture deal.
T-Mobile reportedly takes hatchet to Sprint, cutting entire sales division and other jobs
Hundreds potentially getting Magenta's pink slips
T-Mobile has reportedly issued layoffs to hundreds of employees within Sprint, the carrier it had completed a merger with in April. The decision comes in line with efforts to consolidate and move the latter's workforce under the former's system and marks another step in the protracted wrap-up of the Sprint brand. But the company is also catching heat for crowding more people onto unemployment during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and drifting away from the hiring goals it made to the regulators who had approved the merger.
T-Mobile's merger with Sprint is now complete, Legere steps down as CEO
New bigger company still promises it won't raise prices for at least three years
Today, T-Mobile has announced that its merger with Sprint has officially completed. After years of rumors, planning, and several challenges, the two are now joined together, existing together under the single T-Mobile name. John Legere, T-Mobile's exuberant and endearingly obscene CEO, is also handing off the reigns for the new company to Mike Sievert, who was up until now COO and President of T-Mobile.
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- The Federal Court has given the T-Mobile/Sprint merger its blessing, rejecting the state's claims regarding the potential for things like reduced market competition and denying the state's request for an injunction against the merger.
The merger between T-Mobile and Sprint has been approved by the US Federal District Court, following a suit brought by several US states meant to halt the process. After the ruling, T-Mobile announced that it's beginning the "final steps" to complete the merger, and Sprint's stock is up over 70% at the time of writing.
T-Mobile has officially turned on its 600MHz-based 5G network, claiming 1 million square miles of coverage across urban and rural areas with service possible to more than 200 million people. With the launch, the carrier has summed up what customers can expect from the new spectrum.
When you hear the word T-Mobile, several things probably come to mind: a retina-melting shade of fluorescent pink, industry-bucking "uncarrier" campaigns spanning the greater half of this decade, and the incessant, enthusiastic tweets of Chief Executive extraordinaire, John Legere. Well, you can soon scratch that last one off your list. Per an announcement made by Legere himself, the spirited face of T-Mobile plans to step down from his CEO position in just six short months.
T-Mobile 5G goes live December 6, free service promised for low-income families and first responders
Shortly after the FCC officially announced its approval of the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile, the so-called New T-Mobile is wasting no time firing up the marketing machine. The goal? To convince consumers that less quantifiable competition in the cellular marketplace benefits said consumers. It has announced a set of Un-carrier action plans that will come into place shortly, including the launch of its 5G network.
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The FCC has voted to approve the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile, an agency official told The Verge, with commissioners voting down party lines by a margin of 3 to 2. The two Democratic members have expressed their dissent to the $26 billion transaction announced April of last year in FCC filings and, in one particular member's case, an op-ed.
The Sprint/T-Mobile merger has been riddled with obstacles since the official announcement was made in April. From back and forth discussions dating all the way to 2017, to the DOJ's antitrust division pushing back on the original proposal, to regulators demanding the companies spin off into a fourth carrier, this week adds one more barrier between the two joining forces, and Sprint is the one to blame.
Following the recent news that Dish was willing to pick up some leftover spectrum and superfluous prepaid businesses, the US Department of Justice has just announced its support for the long-awaited $26 billion merger that will join T-Mobile and Sprint into a single carrier. Objections raised by the Attorneys General for five states — previously expected to cause additional delays for the merger — have also been settled.
The Sprint/T-Mobile merger still has potential to materialize and it seems like we're in a holding pattern at the moment, waiting to see if it will be able to carve portions of its spectrum holdings off to another buyer to maintain the presence of a "fourth" national carrier. Satellite TV provider Dish looks to be the most apparent buyer in the market, but has notoriously been negligent to spend any money building a cellular network, perhaps holding lost hopes of being able to sell its portfolio to other carriers. Now, faced with the crisis of opportunity, the New York Post reports that Dish has been in talks with a board member of Alphabet to finally strike up a new carrier.
Sprint has launched its mobile 5G service in four cities — but unlike the short-range millimeter wave networks AT&T and Verizon have already turned on, this is the nation's first taste of 5G on mid-band spectrum in its coveted 2.5GHz band. All told, it covers more than 1,100 square miles and a population of nearly 3.6 million people.
While T-Mobile and Sprint have already worked out how the merger of their two companies will work, they're still waiting on approval from various government entities — including the United States Justice Department and FCC. Now the companies are extending the deadline for their merger, as deliberations continue with federal officials.
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- According to an announcement made today, T-Mobile is rolling out an LTE-based pilot program for its home internet plans. To start, only a few customers in specific, undisclosed markets will be invited to the program, which will deliver "around" 50Mbps with no data caps for $50 a month, with no modem or equipment rental fees.
Today T-Mobile has announced plans to "un-carrier" the home broadband market, launching its own service that aims to provide speeds over 100Mbps to 90% of the US population. T-Mobile's wireless home ISP will eventually be powered by the company's upcoming 5G network, but in the meantime it's revealing a 4G pilot program to test the idea out.