IBM is rolling out a new program Wednesday in order to appeal to startups, offering them free cloud-based software services for up to three years, according to The New York Times. The program, which also provides startups access to IBM scientists, marketers and other experts, is part of the company's Smarter Planet campaign. The program is similar to the BizSpark offering from Microsoft, which also provides free software and services to startup companies.

Meru Networks became the eighth venture-backed company to complete an IPO during the first quarter, which Venture Capital Dispatch reports is equal to all of the VC-backed IPOs last year. And while that might be cause for celebration, Scott Austin correctly writes that eight IPOs "still stinks" for venture capitalists.

InfoSpace, the Bellevue company which operates Internet search services such as Webcawler and Dogpile, has named Stephen Hawthornthwaite as vice president of corporate development. In that role, the former managing partner at GCA Savvian Advisors and former investment banker at Jefferies Group will oversee the company's M&A plans. InfoSpace finished 2009 with $226 million in cash and cash equivalents.

Clearwire reportedly suffered an outage of its high-speed wireless network in the Seattle area over the past weekend, according to technical writer and Clearwire subscriber Bruce Miller and others who reported the problems on DSLReports. According to Miller's report, the failure was due to what a spokesman described as an "intermittent software failure" in the network.

Seattle venture capitalist Nick Hanauer talks about the early days of Amazon, Insitu and aQuantive in part two of an Xconomy interview. Among other things, Hanauer had some choice comments about the future of the online ad business in which he said he's actively avoiding investments in the sector because he's just plain bored with it. "I feel like I did it. Been there, done that, it’s just not intrinsically interesting enough anymore for me. And P.S., it’s done. Maybe I’ll be proved wrong, but plus or minus, the online advertising ecosystem is baked." A good read.

Intelius founder Naveen Jain talks about entrepreneurship, people search and more in a Q&A interview with Search Engine Journal. "Openness to change, persistence and thinking without boundaries – both geographically and intellectually are key attributes I would point for being a successful entrepreneur today," Jain says during the interview.

ZipCar, the Boston-based car sharing service which operates in Seattle, is planning to go public in 2010, according to PEHub.com. ZipCar merged with Seattle's Flexcar in 2007.

Tweet of the day via @mulka: "Where is the Redfin of car dealerships??"