09/02/2026

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | FEB 9, 2026 17 US president says big TV networks need more competition WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Saturday publicly backed a proposed merger between local television station operator Nexstar Media and its smaller rival Tegna. “We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “GET THAT DEAL DONE!” Nexstar last year proposed a US$3.54 billion acquisition of Tegna that would make the combined entity the largest US regional TV station operator, with more leverage with advertisers and pay-TV distributors. Local media is grappling with falling revenue and subscriber loss because of the popularity of streaming services. Trump’s Saturday post on Truth Social seems to strike a different tone from November, when he criticised a proposal to lift the cap on local television station ownership, a move that is necessary for Tegna’s acquisition by Nexstar. Nexstar owns or partners with more than 200 stations and operates brands such as The CW and NewsNation, while Tegna runs 64 stations and networks, including True Crime Network and Quest. A combination of the two would cover 80% of TV households across key markets, the companies have said. In November, Trump posted on social media that he would “not be happy” if lifting the cap allowed Comcast-owned NBC or Walt Disney-owned ABC to expand. But Trump on Saturday suggested certain mergers, such as Nexstar-Tegna, could lessen the influence of the largest TV networks. “Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar - Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level.” A conservative news outlet opposed to the acquisition said on Saturday that Trump should not support the deal. “President Trump was right in November when he called for smaller networks and for keeping TV ownership caps to limit massive broadcast consolidation,” Newsmax said in a statement. “The Nexstar deal means dangerous consolidation that will limit competition, harm conservative voices and dramatically increase consumer cable bills. We hope the president will reconsider his position.” Trump has frequently criticised news coverage by mainstream outlets. The Federal Communications Commission has not made a decision on lifting the ownership cap, which limits a company from owning broadcast television stations that reach more than 39% of US television audience households. The local TV limits will face scrutiny when the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation holds a hearing on the FCC’s media ownership rules tomorrow. – Reuters

EU pushes to cut cord with American technology

o Concern grows that Trump may plunge bloc into digital darkness

BRUSSELS: Until President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers – it was understood to mean China. But now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats – from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland – concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the European Union is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work towards strategic independence – in defence, energy and tech alike. The 27-country bloc relies on foreign countries for over 80% of digital products, services, infrastructure and intellectual property, according to a 2023 EU report. Europe has already begun chipping away at its reliance on US tech. The latest step came last month when France told state employees they would soon be required to use a domestic alternative to tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Brussels’ wake up call came last year when Washington sanctioned judges at the International Criminal Court, cutting them off from US tech such as Amazon or Google. The move laid bare the US stranglehold over many tools that underpin European lives. “During the last year everybody has really realised how important it is that we are not dependent on one country or one company when it comes to some very critical technologies,” EU tech tsar Henna Virkkunen said. “Dependencies... can be weaponised against us,” she warned. Virkkunen will in March unveil a major “tech sovereignty” package covering cloud, artificial intelligence and chips – areas where the the European bloc hopes to build greater autonomy. “Digital technologies are no longer neutral tools,” European Digital SME Alliance’s secretary-general Sebastiano Toffaletti told AFP. “When core infrastructures like cloud, AI

French CEO of AFP Fabrice Fries (left) shakes hands with French founder of Mistral AI Arthur Mensch at the Mistral headquarters in Paris. AFP and Mistral have signed an agreement that allows the conversational robot of the French start-up that aims to become Europe’s leading AI player to use the agency’s news dispatches to answer its users’ queries. – AFPPIC

or platforms are controlled from outside Europe, so are the rules, the data and ultimately the leverage.” Among EU member states, France and Germany have been leading the charge. The northern German state of Schleswig Holstein became a poster child for digital sovereignty last year by ditching Microsoft in favour of open-source software. Digitalisation Minister Dirk Schroedter said the move was economically-driven at first, before “political tensions” shifted the focus. “Dominance of a few tech corporations in public infrastructure limits... our flexibility, threatens our security and inflates our software costs,” Schroedter told AFP. Over six months, the state migrated more than 40,000 mailboxes from Microsoft Exchange and Outlook to open-source solutions Open-Xchange and Thunderbird. There were challenging areas during the transition – for example in document sharing with other federal states and the national government – but Schroedter said the state showed “digital independence is possible”. Meanwhile, the European Parliament is reviewing its reliance on Microsoft among other tools after a cross-party group of lawmakers urged it to adopt European alternatives. Moves are also underway at EU level. French firm Mistral and German giant SAP

agreed to work on a European AI-driven cloud solution at a Franco-German digital sovereignty summit in November. And France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands teamed up last year in a push to create common European digital infrastructure, steered by the European Commission. Much of EU policymaking is now being viewed through the prism of sovereignty. The bloc has long been working on a digital euro, which dozens of economists – including Thomas Piketty – called an “essential safeguard of European sovereignty” in an open letter last month. That follows the 2024 launch of Wero, a European payments alternative to Mastercard, Visa and PayPal backed by several major banks. But Zach Meyers of CERRE, a Brussels-based think tank, warns the EU must be clear about what “tech sovereignty” is meant to achieve. If the goal is to withstand political pressure, the EU may be better off focusing on gaining “more leverage against” the United States, Meyers argued. To that end, he said the most effective strategy is not to cut back on American tech use in Europe but “rather to double down on parts of the tech value chain where the US is dependent on Europe” – from chip-building machinery to corporate software or telecoms equipment. – AFP

Hims to stop offering GLP-1 pill after FDA crackdown warning NEW YORK: Online telehealth company Hims & Hers on Saturday reversed course on its launch of a US$49 compounded version of Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy weight-loss pill after the US Food and Drug Administration said it would take action against it. “Since launching the compounded semaglutide pill on our platform, we’ve had constructive conversations with stakeholders across the industry. As a result, we have decided to stop offering access to this treatment,” the telehealth firm said. The Department of Health and Human Services said on Friday it would refer the company to the Department of Justice but did not make clear whether it could quickly halt the sale of the Hims’ product, the cheapest GLP-1 therapy on the US market. Reuters reported on Thursday that Hims would begin offering copies of Novo Nordisk’s new Wegovy pill at an introductory price of US$49 per month, about US$100 less than the brand name. close on Thursday while Hims’ shares fell. In a statement to Reuters on Saturday after Hims & Hers said it would stop offering its GLP-1 pill, a Lilly spokesman said: “No one should be mass-compounding or selling knockoff GLP-1 products regardless of how they’re administered.” Compounding, in which pharmacies mix ingredients for specialised medicines or to copy a drug but at different dosages, has flourished as Americans chase cheaper prices for drugs. Lilly, which has battled compounded copies of its injectable drug Zepbound, said that patients deserved better than copies with no clinical evidence. Hims’ compounded drug is not FDA-approved and has not gone through clinical trials to prove efficacy. Novo did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Saturday. Hims & Hers did not respond to a Reuters query about whether it would continue selling compounded

weight-loss market to rival Lilly and telehealth firms like Hims. Novo and Hims had a partnership in 2025 allowing Hims to sell injectable Wegovy, but the two companies walked away with Novo saying Hims had wrongfully marketed copycats of Wegovy. Hims’ CEO Andrew Dudum accused Novo of attempting to control how clinicians at Hims make decisions. Makary said in a statement on Friday that the agency will “use all available compliance and enforcement tools within its authorities to address unsubstantiated claims and associated public health concerns.” HHS, which oversees the FDA, was not immediately available for comment. – Reuters

The FDA said on Friday that it plans to restrict GLP-1 ingredients used in compounded drugs that companies such as Hims and online pharmacies have marketed, citing concerns over quality, safety and potential violations of federal law.

The news caused a selloff in shares of Novo and rival Eli Lilly, whose own pill is expected to launch in April. The shares recovered some of the losses on Friday after FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary tweeted his concern after the market’s

The practice is legal under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in certain circumstances. Novo on Thursday responded to Hims’ launch by threatening legal action against the company while

semaglutide injections on its website. The company, alongside Novo and Lilly, is spending millions during Sunday’s Super Bowl to promote its offerings. Novo has been losing share in the