Archive

In the last a few years, the Internet has turned commerce on its head. Suddenly, once sound retail practices, like the mass-merchandising of a handful of popular products, no longer guarantee a big financial payoff in today's retail environment. The marketplace has become so segmented by niche consu...

It may be against the law for U.S. consumers to import prescription drugs into the United States, but that isn't stopping the growth in rogue Internet pharmacies. In fact, the number of such sites is skyrocketing: The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found a to...

The hedge funds that earlier this week called for online broker TD Ameritrade to find a merger partner renewed their call for the strategic move, saying the company is ignoring a "massive value creation opportunity." TD Ameritrade had responded to an earlier call to seek a merger partner by saying i...

Mobile phone technology maker Qualcomm plans to ask the White House to step into a trade and patent dispute with rival Broadcom, hoping the Bush administration will overturn a trade ruling that could ban new models of third-general mobile phones containing the company's technology from being sold in...

Since the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002, board members have become increasingly aware of potential liabilities to board service. Though much of this worry is unfounded, some things still should be watched closely. As a board member, you should be aware of at least some basic indications that the...

Banks looking to increase opportunities to cross-sell products to their online customers will turn in the coming years to Web-based personal finance management tools to do so, according to a research report released Tuesday. "With the online banking market maturing, banks are seeking ways to engage ...

Sony, maker of the embattled PlayStation 3 video game console, said Thursday it plans to lay off employees of its U.S.-based game unit. The job cuts, according to Sony, are part of a corporation-wide restructuring effort. In April, Sony announced that it would cut up to 160 jobs from its European fa...

Monster Worldwide, the parent company of leading online job recruiter Monster.com, shook up its management team Wednesday, and in the process has shed a little stock value. Shares lost about a dollar over most of the Thursday, rebounding a little from a low of $44.40. The news that seemed to spark ...

Online advertising continues to grow at a steady pace, with first quarter spending on Web-based advertising reaching a record level of $4.9 billion. That represents a 26 percent increase when compared with the first quarter of last year, when $3.8 billion was spent, the Interactive Advertising Burea...

The Holy Grail of mobile personal electronics is having all functions on one slim device: voice calls, photography, music, mobile Internet access, personal organizer, calendar, and maybe a few little PC applications on the side. However, most multifunction devices released so far fall short in some ...

Theme-based cities are cropping up at a phenomenal rate in the Middle East, with some one thousand projects currently underway. Developing brand and name identities for them has, in many cases, become a nightmare. Except for a very few, they tend to occupy just a few acres -- or even a single large ...

Two hedge funds are pushing TD Ameritrade Holding to pursue a merger with a rival firm, the online brokerage announced Tuesday. As an attachment to its regulatory filing, TD Ameritrade included a May 29 letter from hedge funds Jana Partners and S.A.C. Capital Advisors, which own an aggregate of abou...

eBay will move to ban international sales of ivory-based products from its auction platform, the company said, citing a recent report showing that the vast majority of such items contain illegally obtained ivory. Scoring public relations points by following the call of a leading international animal...

Has your company defined a Web analytics strategy yet? If your answer is no, then ask yourself: Why not? Companies with defined analytics programs are realizing double-digit growth in new Web site visitors, returning visitor traffic and conversion rates. The barriers to entry for adopting analytics ...

Microsoft has launched a music promotion effort designed to promote new music artists through its Zune, MSN and Xbox-focused electronic outlets. Dubbed "Ignition," Microsoft says the program will provide a steady stream of new music through online access to exclusive content, free song and video dow...