Done deal: Disney buys Fox assets; Google slapped with $1.7B fine, and more top news

The news professionals are talking about now, curated by LinkedIn’s editors. Join the conversation on today's stories in the comments.

Walt Disney is acquiring 21st Century Fox’s biggest entertainment assets for $71.3 billion, per The Wall Street Journal, including its FX cable network, Fox Searchlight label and National Geographic properties. The long awaited deal, which was approved last year by the Justice Dept. but delayed by the government shutdown, is “part of a race for scale in Hollywood,” where media companies “compete in a world where shows and movies are increasingly streamed,” says the Journal. It follows a stream of mergers in the industry, including AT&T’s recent acquisition of Time Warner for $85 billion. ? Here’s what people are saying.

The European Union has hit Google with a third antitrust fine, this time totalling $1.69 billion for preventing competition in the online advertising market. Rivals say the search giant restricted them from showing search ads between 2006 and 2016. “Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s commissioner for competition. ? Here’s what people are saying.

The U.S. government is looking for ways to draw more people into the workforce to offset an aging population. That includes policies that would cut the cost of child care, increase employer training or alter the criminal justice system. While the share of Americans working or looking for work stabilized at around 63% from 2015 through 2018, economists expect that number to fall in the coming years as millions of baby boomers retire. ? Here’s what people are saying.

In a bid to settle multiple discrimination lawsuits, Facebook says it will no longer allow the targeting of users based on their age, sex or ZIP code for ads related to housing, employment and credit, following a report by ProPublica. The decision by the social media giant to prohibit marketers from selectively advertising to people on its platform follows an earlier move to bar “ethnic-affinity” based marketing. The company will also allow the National Fair Housing Alliance to publicize citizens' rights on the platform. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Hunger for SUVs is leading Ford to overhaul its Ford Expedition assembly lines to speed up production. The company is moving 550 workers currently producing the Ford Escape — a compact SUV — to work on the larger Expedition, Lincoln Navigator and F-Series Super Duty Trucks. Production for the Expedition and Navigator had already increased in 2018 by nearly 26,000 and 12,610 vehicles, respectively. General Motors currently dominates the SUV market, per Bloomberg. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Idea of the Day: Good leaders ask themselves questions about how they relate to their employees, says Westpac Group’s Dianne Traynor.

“Do you allow the light to shine on them rather than on yourself? Are you the tree that supports them?”

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