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Apple Inc is expected to report a 1.3 percent increase in iPhone sales in the holiday quarter, its slowest ever and a far cry from the double-digit growth investors have come to expect. Apple sold 75.5 million iPhones in the October-December quarter, according to research firm FactSet StreetAccount, 1 million more than what was sold in the year-ago quarter. Shares of Apple, which will announce earnings after markets close on Tuesday, were trading up 0.3 percent at $99.76, after dipping to $98.07 in morning trading.

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John Malone's Charter Communications Inc struck a $56 billion deal to buy Time Warner Cable Inc, seeking to combine the third and second largest U.S. cable operators to better compete against market leader Comcast Corp. The Federal Communications Commission immediately served notice that it would closely scrutinize the deal, focusing not only on absence of harm but benefits to the public. Charter, in which Malone-chaired Liberty Broadband Corp owns about 26 percent, is offering about $195.71 in cash-and-stock for each Time Warner Cable share, based on Charter's closing price on May 20. A merger of Charter and Time Warner Cable, with other related deals, would create a company that controls more than 20 percent of the U.S. broadband market, according to research firm MoffettNathanson.

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(Reuters) – Apple Inc sold the most number of smartphones globally in the fourth quarter, overtaking Samsung Electronics Co Ltd for the first time since 2011, according to research firm Gartner. Apple sold 74,832 smartphones to end users worldwide, ahead of the 73,032 phones sold by Samsung, according to Gartner's report. The success of big-screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus drove Apple's sales in its first quarter ended Dec. 27.

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Verizon Communications Inc's quarterly revenue rose 6.8 percent due to an increase in subscribers who pay for services after use, and a rise in average revenue per account as users added more devices to shared data plans. Shares in Verizon dipped slightly to $47.95 in premarket trading after closing at $48.25 on Wednesday. Excluding items, Verizon earned 71 cents per share, matching Wall street estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose to $33.19 billion from $31.07 billion, slightly higher than analysts' expectations of $32.69 billion. Verizon's retail postpaid average revenue per account rose to $158.82 from $157.21, but was below $161.64 estimated by analysts polled by research firm StreetAccount.