Clearwire's WiMax alliance with Sprint over?

Pacific Northwest

Clearwire

Clearwire, the Kirkland wireless broadband provider, is scheduled to report third-quarter financial performance today, and the future of its WiMax agreement with Sprint Nextel is likely to be at the center of discussion.

The two companies, according to a report Thursday night on The Wall Street Journal Web site, are scrapping the deal to jointly build a nationwide WiMax network. The Journal attributed the report to "people familiar with the matter."

In recent weeks, after Sprint Chief Executive Gary Forsee was ousted and the company's financial condition deteriorated, the agreement has been the subject of speculation. One report suggested Sprint was considering spinning off its WiMax operation and merging it with Clearwire.

Clearwire officials could not be reached for comment on Thursday's report.

Boeing

Cathay announces order for 17 planes

Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways announced Thursday an order for 10 Boeing 747-8 freighter jets and seven 777-300ERs.

The airline said the deal is valued at $5.2 billion at list prices, indicating that it includes extra services beyond the maximum list pricing for these airplanes of $5 billion.

Based on market price estimates by aircraft-valuation firm Avitas, after standard discounts the airplanes are worth about $2.8 billion.

Isilon

Financials await outside review

Isilon Systems, which makes storage systems for digital content, said Thursday that it will delay reporting its financial results for the quarter ended Sept. 30 while it conducts a review of its revenues.

The Seattle company said the board's audit committee is conducting an independent review of certain sales "to determine whether commitments were made that have an impact on the timing and treatment of revenue recognition and whether the company's internal controls relating to revenue recognition are sufficient."

Isilon said it will file its financials as soon as the review is done and it consults with independent accountants. With these measures, the company expects considerable fees and expenses.

T-Mobile USA

Profits leap 50% from a quarter ago

T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier, reported its third-quarter earnings Thursday along with its parent, Deutsche Telekom, a German telecommunications company.

The Bellevue company said it added 857,000 subscribers during the quarter for a total of 28 million. It added that 3.5 million subscribers have opted for myFaves, a service that gives them unlimited calling to five numbers.

T-Mobile USA said it earned $526 million in the third quarter, a jump of 50 percent from $350 million in the second quarter but down significantly compared with $1.79 billion in the year-ago period. The decrease was due to a $1.5 billion noncash income-tax benefit received in the third quarter last year.

Revenue in the latest quarter was $4.89 billion, up from $4.37 billion in the same period a year ago.

Trident Seafoods

Japan's Kako Foods to be acquired

Seattle-based Trident Seafoods is making its first purchase of a Japanese seafood company, with officials this week announcing an agreement to buy Kako Foods and a subsidiary, KM Foods.

Both Trident and Kako Foods are privately held companies, and no purchase price was disclosed.

Choshi-based Kako Foods employs about 50 people to process salmon specialty products. It has long bought Trident salmon, said Bob Nelson, a Trident corporate counsel.

Wildseed

Mobile-phone assets sold by AOL

AOL, a division of Time Warner, said Wednesday it had shed its Wildseed mobile-phone assets based in Seattle.

AOL purchased Kirkland-based Wildseed in 2005 for an undisclosed amount and expanded its offices here to focus on wireless. But this summer, AOL said it was selling both of its wireless businesses here: Tegic Communications and Wildseed.

AOL sold Tegic in June to Nuance Communications for $265 million in cash. In documents filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it said it transferred the assets of Wildseed to an unnamed third party.

Originally, Wildseed was developing a "smartskin," based on the Linux operating system, that snapped on to a phone. Recently, the technology was used to make a music player with hardware manufacturer Haier.

MediQuest

Positive results for Raynaud's drug

Bothell-based MediQuest Therapeutics said Thursday a late-stage clinical trial of its topical treatment for Raynaud's disease showed encouraging results.

The treatment showed "significant improvement" in patients' symptoms of severe pain in their extremities.

The results put the company "one step closer" to filing a new drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Dr. Frederick Dechow, MediQuest president and CEO.

Nation & World

Ford

Strong showing reduces red ink

Ford on Thursday surprised analysts with stronger than expected third-quarter earnings, significantly narrowing a huge year-earlier loss.

Ford also said it was close to selling Land Rover and Jaguar but had no immediate plans to unload Volvo.

Ford reported a $380 million loss for the quarter, or 19 cents a share, compared with a $5.2 billion loss, or $2.79 a share, a year earlier.

"Our third-quarter and year-to-date performance indicate that our plan is working," CEO Alan Mulally said.

The results beat analysts' expectations and came a day after General Motors posted its worst quarterly loss, a $39 billion shortfall.

Charter Communications

Stock plummets on news of big loss

Shares of cable-TV company Charter Communications dropped by more than a third Thursday after the company reported a huge third-quarter loss that was worse than expected.

The suburban St. Louis-based company, controlled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, blamed the loss on higher expansion and programming costs for its telephone and digital services.

Shares fell 62 cents, or 34.8 percent, to end at $1.16 Thursday.

Compiled from Seattle Times staff, Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press and Bloomberg News