Stories by Stephen Lawson

Dish won't make new bid for Sprint, clearing path for SoftBank

Dish Network won't try to beat SoftBank's US$21.6 billion bid for Sprint Nextel, apparently clearing the way for the Japanese service provider to buy Sprint.

GE thinks it's time to put industrial data in the Cloud

Internet tools are just starting to be applied to industrial tasks such as maintaining equipment and optimizing operations, but the wealth of data being produced by industrial systems could make this a major focus of development in the coming years.

Sprint sues Dish, Clearwire over takeover plan

Sprint Nextel sued Clearwire and Dish Network on Monday in a bid to block Dish from taking over Clearwire, Sprint's majority-owned network partner.

Efficiency will hold down storage growth, IDC says

Lean storage techniques will keep a lid on storage investments over the next few years, though the world's enterprises still are on track to buy 138 exabytes of storage system capacity in 2017, IDC said.

Five ways the Sprint-Clearwire drama might end

The battle of takeovers among Sprint Nextel, Dish Network, Clearwire and SoftBank has heated up as Clearwire's board recommended shareholders accept Dish's bid instead of Sprint's.

New terms in Sprint contracts look toward WiMax shutdown

An amendment to Sprint Nextel's subscriber terms of service points toward the carrier's expected shutdown of its 4G WiMax service.

Clearwire's board backs Dish offer, dealing blow to Sprint

Clearwire's board of directors has unanimously recommended its shareholders reject the takeover bid by Sprint Nextel, which owns roughly half of Clearwire, and instead accept a buyout offer from Dish Network.

On site at a Sprint cell: Gear shrinks while coverage grows

On the roof of a medical building in San Francisco, Sprint Nextel has a cell site that's far above the cramped canyons of the city's streets, but despite the wide-open views, space is limited.

HP adds purpose-built all-flash array to 3Par lineup

Hewlett-Packard will extend its 3Par enterprise storage line into flash-only territory this week, promising to combine higher speed with familiar software.

SoftBank hikes bid for Sprint to $21.6 billion

SoftBank has sweetened its bid for Sprint Nextel, increasing its total offer to about US$21.6 billion and boosting the amount of cash Sprint shareholders would get.

DOJ clears Softbank's acquisition of Sprint Nextel

The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday it has no objection to Softbank acquiring Sprint Nextel, a decision that clears the way for the Federal Communications Commission to rule on the deal.

Google, Cisco to pay TiVo in patent settlement

Cisco Systems and Google will give digital-video-recorder pioneer TiVo lump-sum payments totaling US$490 million as part of a deal that will end the companies' litigation over patents for set-top technology.

Report: NSA, FBI collecting content from Google, Facebook, other services

The U.S. National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation have access to servers at Google, Facebook and other major Internet services, collecting audio, video, e-mail and other content for surveillance, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

Dell combines faster and cheaper SSDs in one box, with automatic tiering

Many enterprise storage systems include two or more types of hard disk drives, with data automatically moved between those two tiers of storage. The same concept has now been applied to two types of SSDs.

Dell takes converged systems to small sites with PowerEdge VRTX

Dell has introduced a converged computing, storage and networking system for small and remote offices, the PowerEdge VRTX, saying it will let customers deploy a system with virtualization in hours.