Business & Finance

On Jan. 6, with great fanfare, Clearwire (CLWR) announced the first “commercial” launch of its to-be-nationwide-eventually WiMAX network, in Portland. "Today is a historic day for the evolution of mobile computing and communications services in Portland, and the U.S.," said Clearwire’s Benjamin Wolff, in a statement. Clearwire already offers a beta service in Baltimore, which was launched last September.Formed from the ...

Ratings service Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday upgraded Alltel Communications Inc.’s ratings, three days before parent company Alltel Corp. becomes part of Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ).S&P raised the ratings from ‘B-‘ to ‘A’ and also removed Alltel’s ratings from CreditWatch, where they’d been listed with positive implications since June 5, 2008, when Verizon announced its intent to buy Alltel.Alltel Communications has ...

Storage company EMC Corp. (EMC) reportedly has acquired assets from open source software support tool outfit SourceLabs Inc. in an effort to expand its play in cloud computing.Terms of the deal, which was not mentioned on either company’s Web site as of early Tuesday morning, were not specified in the Network World story posted Monday.SourceLabs, according to its Web site, serves ...

IP-based video provider Glowpoint Inc. (GLOW.OB) said Monday it has completed its second debt-for-equity exchange since November. Glowpoint now boasts “a significantly improved balance sheet and simplified capital structure,” said company CEO Michael Brandofino in a prepared statement. The company’s stock closed at 29 cents on Monday, down from Friday’s close of 30 cents.

Provided you haven’t had your fill of technology predictions for 2009, here are some more.Wireless carriers already making tons of money will continue making tons of money, while the lower-cost resellers such as Leap Wireless will attract more subscribers than ever, according to new analysis from inCode.Another not-so-surprising forecast is that venture capitalists will be slow to throw money at ...