• After months of legal battles, Broadcom has dropped all efforts to acquire Emulex. The announcement came after Emulex rejected an offer to partake in “friendly discussions” toward a merger, said Broadcom. The company first approached Emulex for a possible buyout in December 2008. Shortly thereafter, the company adopted a so-called poison pill provision that made hostile takeovers extremely expensive and amended its corporate bylaws to require a 66.67 percent shareholder approval for any further amendments. Broadcom’s formal offer, issued in May, will expire on July 14.
• Anritsu has introduced a handheld base station analyzer designed to work with emerging 4G standards and legacy 2G and 3G networks. The analyzer, dubbed the BTS Master MT8221B, measures the RF and modulation quality of a wireless signal to verify subsystem performance in a base station’s transmitter. The device has a 20 MHz demodulation capability that can measure technologies such as LTE and WiMAX. It is also equipped with a 30-MHz Zero-Span IF Output that can externally demodulate “virtually any other” wideband signal, according to the company.
• Qualcomm will donate a deployable 3G CDMA base station worth dearly $500,000 to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Terrestrial networks are often knocked out during natural disasters, and the ITU will use the base station to boost mobile telecommunications in those areas. The base station will also be used to strengthen those areas’ disaster response and recovery mechanisms. The donation is part of Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach program, which provides critical wireless solutions for disaster response.
• ABI Research predicts that revenue from sales of Wi-Fi-enabled healthcare products worldwide will total $4.9 billion in 2014. This figure, which does not include sales of Wi-Fi-equipped medical equipment, represents an increase of nearly 70 percent over today’s figure. The firm attributes the jump in Wi-Fi-enabled products to the need for improved asset management, staff mobility, transfer of digitized records and standardized administration of medications.
• Verizon has tapped Kathleen Grillo to lead its federal regulatory team in Washington, D.C.. Grillo will become senior vice president of federal regulatory affairs on Sept. 1, replacing Susanne Guyer, who announced her retirement earlier this week. Grillo joined Verizon in 2002 as legal counsel in the legal department's federal regulatory group and became vice president of federal regulatory affairs in 2003. She is a member of the Federal Communications Bar Association and former chair of the Computer and Telecommunications Law Section of the D.C. Bar.
• Canadian carrier Rogers has introduced the country’s first 3.5G-embedded netbooks, the HP Mini 110. The netbooks include built-in mobile broadband technology with download speeds up to 7.2 Mbps. The 2.57-pound device measures just over one inch thick and features a 10.1-inch display, a keyboard that is 92 percent the size of a standard notebook PC, a 160 GB hard drive and 1 GB of memory.
• Open source mobile application software provider Borqs has landed $17.4 million in venture financing from Norwest Venture Partners, GSR Ventures, Keytone Ventures and current investors. As a part of the investment, Mohan Kumar of Norwest Venture Partners will join Borqs’ board of directors. Borqs develops mobile software products for wireless service providers and its client-side software is based on Google’s Android mobile software.
• The American Heart Association has launched a first-aid and CPR application for the iPhone. The app allows users to review first-aid procedures and makes the information available even when users are out of cell phone range. The application, powered by Jive Media, also features a phone-based medical profile where users can store their family's medical information for quick access in an emergency. The information is only stored on the individual's phone and is deleted if the application is removed from the phone.