| Seattle Times Newspaper

Space taxi awards: Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, are expected to win the bulk of as much as $1 billion in federal contracts to spur development of so-called space taxis, The Wall Street Journal reported. The decision, which is expected to be announced Friday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is part of NASA's effort to foster commercially owned and operated vehicles to shuttle crews to and from the international space station, the Journal noted.

Bellevue building deal: American Assets Trust, a San Diego-based real estate investment trust, said it has agreed to purchase the 27-story City Center Bellevue for approximately $229 million. Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners is the current owner of the nearly 500,000-square-foot building at 500 108th Ave. N.E. in Bellevue. American Assets expects 92 percent of the building's rentable square feet to be leased when the deal closes.

Smartphone share: Microsoft still has a huge way to go to catch up in the smartphone marketplace. ComScore data for the second quarter show Microsoft platforms held only 3.8 percent of the U.S. market. Google held 51.6 percent and Apple was at 32.4 percent.

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United's 787 plans: United Continental, set to receive its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner next month, already is considering a larger version of the 220-seat plane. The airline is interested in the 787-10 that Boeing is planning, Ron Baur, United's vice president for fleet, said as the carrier showed off its first Dreamliner outside Boeing's Everett factory. The jet needs more work and testing before it's delivered in late September.

Shopping spree: AT&T has agreed to buy NextWave Wireless, a troubled company that's mainly a holder of wireless spectrum rights, for $600 million in cash, most of which will go toward paying off NextWave debt. In addition, AT&T revealed that it has agreed to buy spectrum from Comcast and also from Horizon Wi-Com, a small Miami-based company that tried to start up its own wireless broadband network.

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