CenturyLink buys an instant expansion with Level 3 acquisition

CenturyLink takes infrastructure boost to Level 3

Happy Halloween, and as the sugar high from this past weekend’s festivities slowly subsides, it back to focusing on tech news and stories about companies spending nearly unfathomable amounts of money to buy other tech companies. Hot on the heels of the AT&T / Time-Warner mega-merger comes news that ISP CenturyLink is buying up Level 3, a broadband and internet infrastructure company, for $34 billion in stock.

Level 3 may not have the high profile of Time-Warner or other big tech firms, but they’re a huge international player when it comes to building out expansive internet infrastructure with optical fiber and networking systems. Heck, you might be using their systems right now to watch this video.

Anyway, the merger is expected to greatly expand CenturyLink’s data and internet businesses, which they’ll need to battle the ATT& Time Warner juggernaut.

Is it time for Apple to go content company shopping?

Speaking of mergers and such, Apple’s new “TV” app is generating rumors it may be looking to reel in a major content provider to expand its content pool, and top of the rumor list? Netflix.

According to Business Insider, both Netflix and Amazon’s Instant Video will be absent from the new app, and without those two streaming icons on board, the Apple TV app doesn’t seem much more attractive than any other streaming service. But if Apple were to buy Netflix? Suddenly, they’re a major player. But could it happen?

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is not likely to be an easy sell, but Apple CEO Tim Cook is also sitting on about $230 billion in cash. What’s Hastings price, if he has one? Cook said he wants to make the TV app a “unified” experience for users, and without Netflix, that goal will remain out of reach.

Again, it all rumors and speculation right now, but with streaming shaping up to be the way we watch TV going forward, don’t be surprised if Tim Cook’s wallet suddenly comes into play.

OLED iPhone 8 rumor gets odd but solid boost

BGR reports that Jeng Wu-Tai, who is the CEO of Sharp and is also an executive at Apple gadget maker Foxconn, told reporters that the iPhone 8 will have an OLED screen, something that’s been rumored for a while now. Also, with iPhone sales numbers starting to slide south, the OLED upgrade may arrive next year and not in 2018 as previously rumored.

Will the phone have a complete top-to-bottom screen as seen in a popular render? Wu-Tai didn’t say, but seeing as how other phone makers are bringing just that kind of form factor to market now, we’d have to say that at this point, anything is possible. Get more details about this latest rumor here.

from Planet GS via John Jason Fallows on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2f5UuJL
Bill Roberson