This week, EarthLink Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK) announced its Q4 results. There was a loss of $9.5 million, or $0.08 per share, which included a $31.1 million write-off from its wi-fi assets.

And, yes, now the company wants to offload the segment. So what does this mean for EarthLink, as well as the space?

Well, I had a chance to interview Craig Settles, who is the author of After Muni Wireless Comes to Town. According to him:

Probably the most common question this sale generates is, why would anyone want to buy the business? It ultimately depends on how much is the asking price, and what actual assets come with the deal. If you look back at Metricom, who marketed Ricochet, they didn't get a whole lot when they sold their business out of bankruptcy court.

Frequently, the difference between a successful investor and one less so is all timing. Making money in the market requires not only picking the right companies to invest in, but also deciding when (or when not) to invest in such companies.

I rediscovered Earthlink (NASDAQ: ELNK) last year while running a value screen. Like many stocks that end up in the proverbial value barrel, this company was once a high flier, trading at a split-adjusted $50, while now trading around $8. There were highs and lows, culminating in Earthlink's founder being charged with fraud and money laundering. I recalled that Earthlink was in the now-dying dial-up ISP business during the bubble days of the internet and decided to dig a little deeper.

What I saw, when I looked under the hood, caught my attention. While Earthlink was indeed seeing dial-up customers dial-out of their contracts, Earthlink was converting a good percentage of these customers to DSL service. It was working well -- while the company wasn't growing much, it was producing a lot of cash from operations and instead of just building a cash horde, like many companies would do in a situation like this, the company was looking to reposition itself with two major, seemingly sexy initiatives.

There is some news out of the U.K. that Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE)'s PSP, the PlayStation Portable, may actually get turned into a phone with BT Group (NYSE: BT), formally known as British Telecom. There is already a clip-on mini-camera available for it, and the advanced communications just takes it that much further into a PC and total communications device with video, voice, and wi-fi.

One small problem. Last weekend I was at GameStop looking for a gift for my nephew and when I asked the people working about the PSP, they told me that it was a disaster. They said the Nintendo DS was far better, and this was a bit surprising considering the sleekness of the PSP. Even a buyer at the register that owned a PSP said he wished he didn't buy it.

So maybe as a phone and full-on communications center it may be better, but if the people selling it are going to directly discourage this, then how successful can it be? Sounds like they'll need to convince at least some more of the sellers of the PSP that improvements have been made.

Jon Ogg is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is about to purchase 13 hotels from All Nippon Airways for about $1.2B, doubling the number of hotels the investment bank owns there, reported the Wall Street Journal.
• The Financial Times reported that Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced it would delay shipping its new Leopard operating system until October, due to the summer launch of its iPhone.

OTHER PAPERS:

• According to the New York Times, citing people briefed on the discussions, Sallie Mae (NYSE: SLM) is in talks to be acquired by private equity for more than $20B.
• The Guardian reported that exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky is planning the "violent overthrow of [Russian] President Putin".
• The New York Post reported that Dubai is looking at buying Jones Apparel Group Inc's (NYSE: JNY) Barneys New York for $950M. Contrary to previous reports, the suitor is not linked to Qatar's royal family, but is Istithmar, a private equity firm owned by the Dubai government.

WEBSITES:

• According to sources familiar with the matter, Apple has plans to release new iPods with Wi-Fi, reported DigiTimes.com.

Earthlink, Inc. (NASDAQ:ELNK) is definitely getting serious about Wi-Fi. This week, the company announced that there is now service in Milpitas, California.

The weak link for EarthLink has always been its dependence on other companies' infrastructures, such as cable and DSL. Obviously Wi-Fi is a good thing from that standpoint.

Trouble is, first you have to win the contract with a city. The company has been in protracted negotiations with San Francisco for just that.

I had a chance to interview Craig Settles, who is the author of Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless. According to him:

"This launch in Milpitas is important for the municipal wireless industry in general, but particularly so for EarthLink. During the next quarter the smaller cities are coming online first, rather than the high profile large cities such as Philly and Boston. Continued momentum for municipal wireless depends on how well the networks operate in these early deployments, and a good showing by EarthLink matters to them since so much of their future rides on muni wireless.

"Milpitas is also important because the small cities are pushing the envelope to use these networks to not only streamline mobile workforce operations costs, but also dramatically increase decision-making by workers in the field. Average citizens will benefit through streamlined government service delivery that improves economic, medical and quality of life conditions. As these changes are replicated and documented, they become guideposts for the larger cities as their networks go live later in the year."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates DealProfiles.com.

Two titans of tech Cisco and IBM, are in a generous mood. And that's good news for citizens of Silicon Valley.

The two companies plan to shell-out up to $270 million to provide free Wi-Fi services to Silicon Valley, which is about 1,500 square miles. And it will certainly have its challenges. Try getting 42 cities with roughly 2.4 million residents to work together.

What's the motivation for this deal? Well it's good marketing. It also can be, in a way, a laboratory for experimentation. After all Silicon Valley is the center of the universe for technology, right?

One interesting twist is the involvement of SeaKay, which is a nonprofit that helps provide technology to low-income communities.

I interviewed Craig Settles, who is the author of the book Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless. According to him: "One thing that will be interesting to watch here is the influence that SeaKay has on the funding model that gets adopted in these municipalities. SeaKay has been an early-on advocate of finding corporate and philanthropic organizations to sponsor muni networks. I believe this approach has significant merit, and is a much more viable financial approach than relying heavily on banner ads to fund network build-outs and operations. If the partnership doesn't smother them - the company only has a handful of people - SeaKay will get a lot of other cities to view sponsorships in a credible light."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.