S&P Hits Level 3 With Lowered Rating
A day after announcing it’s trying to raise $400 million with a tender offer, Level 3 Communications Inc.(LVLT) got bad news from Wall Street. Standard Poor's Ratings Services on Tuesday lowered its corporate credit rating on Level 3 to 'CC' from 'B-'. Analysts said they were responding to ne... read more

The First U.S. LG Smartphone Has Arrived
The Christmas onslaught of smartphones continues, with LG debuting its first smartphone in the United States, on the ATT Inc. network.The LG Incite is a touchscreen device (natch) based on Windows Mobile 6.1, and comes with a slew of value-added features, including two virtual keyboards. (44 words)<... read more

iPCS Injunction to Nix Sprint-Clearwire Dropped
Spring-Nextel Corp. this week managed to mollify its affiliate, iPCS Inc., which had filed an injunction to block Sprint’s WiMAX deal with Clearwire Corp., which is scheduled for a Clearwire shareholder vote on Nov. 20.iPCS has exclusive rights to sell Sprint wireless mobility in its districts... read more

FCC Releases Verizon-Alltel Merger Details
The FCC has released details of its requirements for the Verizon-Alltel merger. Turns out, the agency added five markets to its original list Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) must divest before it digests Alltel Corp. Verizon will have to shed spectrum, customers and some network assets. And no... read more

Ifbyphone Secures $4.6 Million
Hosted IP telephony provider Ifbyphone said Tuesday it has secured $4.6 million in a second round of institutional funding from five venture capital firms.“We view this new round of funding as a strong endorsement of our growth and expansion strategy,” said Ifbyphone founder and CEO Irv ... read more

Symantec CEO Replacement Digs Direct
Symantec Corp. (SYMC) CEO John Thompson has announced he’s leaving the company next year. He feels like 10 years is just “long enough” to stay at the helm of one business.Channel partners were reporting confusion about the channel’s role with the company and hope the ... read more

Bye, Bye Yang: Yahoo! CEO Finally Steps Down
Jerry Yang finally has agreed to quit his post as Yahoo! Inc.’s  (YHOO) CEO. It’s past time. The Internet company’s stocks have fallen to a third of the price-per-share Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) offered to pay for a buyout; there’s no apparent strategy for success; and... read more

iTEMize 3.0 Targets Medium Businesses
iTEMize Technologies has introduced iTEMize 3.0, with features geared toward medium businesses. The online telecom expense management solution includes both wireline and wireless inventory tracking, financial management tools for identifying billing anomalies, trending and reconciliation, automated ... read more

CA Launches Cloud Computing, SaaS Initiatives
CA Inc. has unveiled a cloud computing management initiative and an SaaS business unit. The integrated suite of enterprise IT management solutions includes governance and security solutions and spans virtualized, distributed and mainframe computing, storage, network and desktop infrastructures. R... read more

BT, Ribbit Launch Voice 2.0 Platform
BT and subsidiary Ribbit have launched a platform for inserting voice capability into Web-based applications.The platform, which has been in beta for a year, lets third-party developers create any number of Voice 2.0 telephony-Web mash-up applications, and also is open to other carriers to use, desi... read more