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Venture capitalists may not be the heroic figures they were a few years ago, but they still have the power to decide whether would-be e-business superstars get a chance to seek the limelight. The difference between now and then is scale, Bain Capital Ventures partner Mike Krupka told the E-Commerce ...

Fancy the situation of the computer OEM, stuck selling the same software from Microsoft for the next two years -- software that's already been around for more than a year and a half. We may be seeing a four-year cycle between Microsoft upgrades, certainly the longest I can remember. A wonder, indeed...

Apple Computer has unveiled its next-generation Power Macs, based on IBM's new 64-bit processor chip, the PowerPC G5. "The 64-bit revolution has begun, and the personal computer will never be the same again," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco...

Dell plans to introduce a new line of consumer and business printers this week, launching an attack on rival Hewlett-Packard where HP's defenses are strongest. "The printer segment was traditionally one that HP didn't have to worry too much about," Forrester analyst Rob Enderle told the E-Commerce T...

In macro terms, the hostile takeover has been a common, if generally reviled, tactic throughout human history. But does this art of war hold up over the long term in the business world? Are there times when such shotgun marriages turn out to be the right decision for the parties involved? Amid the O...

Fraud on the Web may be analogous to fraud in the real world, but it seems to be far easier to defraud individuals of their bank accounts, cell phone accounts and even entire identities online. In this new medium, the black hats are outpacing the white hats, at least so far. Analysts are hoping the ...

PeopleSoft has commenced its offer to buy software maker J.D. Edwards, forging ahead with the $1.75 billion deal despite Oracle's best efforts to squash the merger. PeopleSoft is offering each J.D. Edwards shareholder $7.05 in cash, plus a fractional share of its own stock, in a deal that values J.D...

It would be a gross understatement to say the Mac faithful are eagerly awaiting a new office productivity suite from Apple. For rumor sites and Mac-focused blogs, the arrival of such software would be a touchstone. We may get a sneak peek during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next week in S...

Oracle has upped the ante in its hostile bid to take control of PeopleSoft, boosting its all-cash offer by 22 percent, or $1.2 billion. Oracle now says it will offer $19.50 per share for all outstanding shares of PeopleSoft stock, making the acquisition worth about $6.3 billion in total. "Oracle rem...

It was the kind of day a relatively young, publicly traded dot-com dreams about when it's just a startup daring to dream. Netflix had come out the night before and said that instead of posting an expected quarterly loss, it would turn in a strong profit, its first ever. After-hours traders had bumpe...

Microsoft has filed suit against 15 spammers in the United States and United Kingdom as part of a stepped-up campaign to stop the flood of junk e-mail. The lawsuits claim the 15 defendants sent some 2 billion unwanted and deceptive messages to members of Microsoft's MSN service and its Web-based Hot...

Although the Internet burst into the mainstream several years ago, many enterprises are only just beginning to consider how world-class search capabilities could benefit their in-house infrastructure. One of the forerunners in this field is industry darling Google. In fact, Google product manager Jo...

Microsoft is backing away from the Web browser business. On the heels of its late May disclosure that it will cease developing new stand-alone versions of Internet Explorer for Windows, the company has announced it is abandoning the Mac browser market entirely. The next new version of IE will not sh...

Microsoft has whittled the number of states appealing its antitrust settlement with the U.S. federal government to one, reaching a deal with West Virginia that will require the software giant to pay at least $21 million in total to consumers, businesses and state agencies. West Virginia's decision t...

Most CIOs at some point have asked: Should I outsource this IT project? The answer can be surprisingly complex, depending on the reasons for considering such a move. According to Gartner principal analyst Bruce Caldwell, savings achieved through outsourcing can be significant -- in the 20 to 30 perc...