This Wednesday, March 21, 2018, file photo shows the Facebook logo on a smartphone in Ilsan, South Korea. Facebook has agreed to pay $40 million to advertisers who said it inflated the amount of time its users watched videos. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) --
Facebook has agreed to pay $40 million to advertisers who said it inflated the amount of time its users watched videos.
The San Jose Mercury News says the California-based social media giant denied any wrongdoing in a lawsuit settlement. The settlement notice was filed Friday by the plaintiffs in Oakland federal court.
Advertisers sued Facebook in 2016 over user metrics that supposedly measured the average length of time consumers spent viewing posted video ads. The lawsuit said that the time was inflated by up to 900 percent and that helped convince advertisers to buy Facebook's video advertising services.
Facebook publicly acknowledged an error in the formula. The company denied allegations that its engineers knew about problems for more than a year and did nothing.
Dish Network satellite dishes are shown at an apartment complex in Palo Alto, Calif., Feb. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)
DirecTV is calling off its planned acquisition of rival Dish after the offer was rejected by bond holders at that company.
The deal was reliant on Dish bond holders agreeing to trade in the debt they held for debt in the new company, a swap that would have cost them about $1.6 billion, collectively.
The retreat by DirecTV this week may end a years-long effort by the company to acquire both Dish and Sling after it announced the bid in September.
DirecTV was looking to acquire Dish TV and Sling TV from its owner EchoStar in a debt exchange transaction that included a payment of $1, plus the assumption of approximately $9.8 billion in debt. The deal was contingent on several factors, including regulatory approvals and bondholders writing off debt related to Dish.
"While we believed a combination of DirecTV and Dish would have benefited all stakeholders, we have terminated the transaction because the proposed exchange terms were necessary to protect DirecTV's balance sheet and our operational flexibility," DirecTV CEO Bill Morrow said in a statement.
The prospect of a DirecTV-Dish combo has long been rumored, and reported talks resurfaced over the years. And the two almost merged more than two decades ago — but the Federal Communications Commission blocked the deal valued at the time at $18.5 billion deal, citing antitrust concerns.
The pay-for-TV market has shifted significantly since. As more and more consumers tune into online streaming platforms, demand for more traditional satellite entertainment continues to shrink.
DirecTV says that it will continue to invest in next-generation streaming platforms and offer new packaging options while integrating content from live TV alongside direct-to-consumer... Read More
