WRAL Tech Wire

New wireless site firm in Chapel Hill raises $80M

Eco-Site, a new venture focused on building wireless communications sites, raises $80 million from a private equity firm.

CEO: Cisco to step up acquisition pace, move more into software

"We've gone too long without any major M&A," Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers says. "We got too slow. You're going to see us be quicker."

John Chambers

NCSU wins $9M grant for home solar power project

The U.S. Energy Department awards N.C. State a $9 million grant for development of solar power panels that can be purchased, installed and made operational in one day.

Solar Power

GSK, other firm's potential childhood cancer drugs undergo review

Medicines from GlaxoSmithKline, Amgen, Threshold Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH have the potential to treat children with a variety of tumors and fast-spreading leukemia.

Belk adding 150 jobs in Charlotte for online sales

Belk, saying ecommerce is "the fastest growing part" of the company, will add 150 workers in Charlotte to support its online business.

Bandwidth, Yealink to provide free telecom, net services at Underground

Bandwidth, a provider of telecommunications services, and Yealink, which provides Internet Protocol-based communications, are offering complimentary services to companies located in Durham's American Underground.

RTP drug firm BioCryst cuts half its work force, VP for development

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals is laying off half its employees, or 38 people, as part of a restructuring announced early Friday. Among those being let go is the firm's vice president for strategic planning.

401(k) decision riles up IBM union debate - on both sides

Will IBM ever unionize? As a wide range of comments on both sides of the issue show, Big Blue is hardly on the verge of becoming a union shop. But that likely fact doesn't mean people will stop debating the issue.

IBM Global Union Alliance

Raleigh-based WasteZero raising $5M from investors

WasteZero, which works with governments to implement "Pay as You Throw" trash and recycling programs, has already raised some $3.2 million from 14 investors.

Samsung urges judge to avoid 'thermonculear war' in Apple patent battle

Lawyers from Apple and Samsung spar again in federal court over a jury's recent awarded of $1 billion in damages to Apple for patent infringement and Apple's request that 25 Samsung products be banned permanently.

Apple iPad, left; Samsung Galaxy

Top wireless carriers to accelerate text-to-911 capabilities

Under an agreement announced Thursday, AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. will do "major deployments" of so-called text-to-911 in the U.S. next year, the FCC says.

Chemistry among people, companies is crucial to biochemistry deals

Finding the right chemistry is crucial to biotech deals, as two major life science partnerships in the Triangle have shown this year: GSK and Liquidia; Merck and Chimerix.

Drug deal

Broadband in NC: Today's health care requires fast networks

12 Days of Broadband, Day 2: MCNC takes a look at health care and how the North Carolina TeleHealth Network (NCTN) is serving the high-bandwidth, low-latency network needs of health practitioners and researchers throughout North Carolina to help find the next great cure.

Second Annual 12 Days of Broadband

2013 looks to be good year for Triangle's video game industry

Even though funding remains tight, the RTP area's video game companies look to 2013 with hope as new platform technology emerges, mobile gaming grows and how to monetize titles becomes more clear, say a group of industry executives.

Execs talk video games at ACG event

AT&T strikes deal with former rival Akamai for video, data delivery

AT&T, the largest U.S. phone company, plans to sell business users the Akamai service as part of its expanding Internet offering that includes data-center information storage and cloud computing.