T-Mobile has been by far the fastest growing U.S. wireless carrier since John Legere took over as CEO in late 2012. Legere’s un-carrier strategy to break with traditional market practices like two year contracts and high roaming fees helped T-Mobile more than double its subscriber base to 69 million.
In 2014, Sprint made a run at T-Mobile, majority owned by Deutsche Telekom, but antitrust regulators waved them off, fearing consolidation would hurt consumers.
However, that same logic likely wouldn’t bar a new entrant in wireless from acquiring Legere’s treasure. And Comcast cmcsa , the cable TV giant that also owns NBC Universal, has said it plans to offer a wireless service sometime in 2017.
Comcast’s play depends on using leased airwaves from Verizon vz , but Legere says sooner or later the cable giant will realize it needs “ownership economics.” And what better carrier to own that T-Mobile? —Aaron Pressman
A Major Player Will Nab Netflix
There have been plenty of rumored suitors for Netflix, including Apple, Google and even Disney dis . Any company in the entertainment space drools at the company’s millions of subscribers and its growing stable of movies and TV shows.
It would be an expensive mouthful, to be sure, with a market value of $50 billion. Plus Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said he doesn’t want to sell. But he may not have much of a choice if the company’s spending on content keeps ramping up—it will hit $6 billion next year and it’s still growing.
While it would take a suitor with very deep pockets, Netflix nflx may have to go courting if its stock price starts to flag. —Mathew Ingram
Amazon Will Buy Barnes & Noble
After years of siphoning away books sales from Barnes & Noble, Amazon amzn is now taking the fight to the brick-and-mortar world with its own stores. But so far, Amazon’s bookstore fleet is comprised of only four open or announced locations, and word is the online retailer has designs for potentially hundreds of bookstores that could also sell other items, like Amazon’s electronics.
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