In the latest Bulldog blog wrapup of tech and life science news:

The FCC OKs AT&T’s deal for Leap Wireless; Quintiles finalizes its stock offering; Mozilla to port new Epic game engine; Novella names head for Europe and Asia; Bayer CropScience and John Deere partner on crop data.

The news:

  • FCC approves AT&T Deal

DALLAS, Texas – The FCC has granted approval to AT&T for its $1.2 billion purchase of Leap Wireless, which offers the Cricket brand.

The deal was announced last July. 

AT&T nets some 5 million customers, more airwaves and a larger piece of the pay-as-you-go market.

  • Quintiles Finalizes Prospectus

DURHAM – Quintiles on Thursday filed with the SEC  an updated prospectus for the stock offering of some 15 million shares and another 2.25 million shares for udnerwriters at $52 a share.

You can read the details at: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1478242/000119312514097933/d679439d424b4.htm

  • Epic, Mozilla Partner on New Game Engine

CARY – Epic Games has struck a deal to port its new Unreal 4 game engine to Mozilla browers (Firefox).

The announcement comes just days ahead of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

“This technology has reached a point where games users can jump into via a Web link are now almost indistinguishable from ones they might have had to wait to download and install,” said Brendan Eich, CTO and SVP of Engineering at Mozilla, according to TechnieNews.

  • Novella Names Leader for Europe, Asia

DURHAM – Novella Clinical, which recently became part of Quintiles, has named a new head of operations for Europe and Asia.

He’s Chris Smyth. 

Notes Novella:

“Smyth joins Novella Clinical (Novella) with more than 20 years research and development experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Novella, he served as senior vice president of clinical development in the oncology division of INC Research. Smyth has led clinical research organizations (CROs) and biopharmaceutical companies in both Europe and the U.S., dealing exclusively in hematology and oncology drug development since 2003. He earned his Ph.D. in Reproductive Biology from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from Henley Management College.”

  • Bayer CropScience, John Deere Partner on Data

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Data from the fields is growing ever more sophisticated, and Bayer CropScience has struck a partnership with John Deere to exploit that information. 

“Bayer CropScience and John Deere are working together to integrate data access, wireless data transmission, and delivery of prescription recommendations to help farmers optimize yields and return on investment,” the companies said Thursday. “The collaboration will enable Bayer CropScience and John Deere to provide data-enabled decision-support tools for farmers.”