AT&T could finalize Time Warner deal by Monday; the Internet breaks, and more news.

AT&T is now in “advanced talks” to buy Time Warner, The Wall Street Journal reports. Both sides are acting quickly in a deal that could be finalized by this weekend. If all goes according to plan, the takeover would give AT&T commodities like CNN, HBO and other valuable channels, making it “one of the country's dominant media companies, with significant control over both programming and the distribution of that programming.”

Your favorite sites may have been down throughout the day thanks to not one, but two, DDoS attacks that hit a major DNS host, Dyn. If you’re located on the East Coast in the US or the UK, the attack is affecting the loading times of sites like Twitter, Reddit, Spotify, and (God forbid) Netflix, among many others. Dyn indicates the worst may not be over yet. Get the latest update here.

A $47 billion deal will create the world's biggest listed tobacco company: British American Tobacco will buy up US tobacco maker Reynolds, combining brands like Newport, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall. BAT has been missing from the US market for 12 years, but will return with the deal as “the only tobacco giant with a leading presence in American and international markets.” The union will also help accelerate both companies’ work with e-cigarettes.

Facebook may soon get more graphic -- as long as it’s in the name of news, TechCrunch explains. Content may include violence and nudity that would normally violate the site’s community standards. The move is in response to criticism of Facebook’s temporary censorship of the famous “Napalm Girl” nude photo, which was later restored after backlash.

Dick’s Sporting Goods has won a bankruptcy auction for Golfsmith for $70 million. At least 30 Golfsmith stores will stay open, while the others close down or possibly re-brand as part of Dick’s Golf Galaxy shops. Dick’s won another bankruptcy auction earlier this year for the intellectual property of Sports Authority for $15 million.

Airbnb renters will now feel the wrath of New York in the form of fines up to $7,500 for violating a 2010 state law “forbidding rentals of less than 30 days when the owner or tenant is not present.” Airbnb had already brought forth a new set of company policies to begin Nov. 1 to help kill the proposal, but looks like it was too little, too late. Airbnb plans to sue New York “alleging that the law violates several federal protections, including Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which prohibits governments from punishing websites for content posted by their users.”

Cover Art: AT&T CEO C. Michael Armstrong responds to a question as Comcast Chairman Ralph J. Roberts looks on at a media conference to announce the merger between AT&T Broadband with Comcast December 20, 2001 in New York City.