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A grand jury has indicted former WorldCom chief financial officer Scott Sullivan and Bernard Yates, the company's onetime director of general accounting, on seven counts associated with their roles in the "misplacement" of nearly $8 billion worth of WorldCom funds. The jury handed down one count ...

Two new reports have predicted several more years of sustained growth for e-commerce, as well as a strong 2002 holiday season, as online shoppers search for bargains in a languishing economy. In one of the reports, Forrester Research predicted that by 2007, online sales will make up 8 percent of ...

While at one time it was relatively easy to find and sign up for free services online, it is becoming increasingly difficult to locate no-cost offerings that provide more than a bare minimum. And although analysts said free services will continue well into the future, their audiences may shrink a...

EBay, as the legend goes, became a billion-dollar global powerhouse after beginning its life as a place where Pierre Omidyar's wife could sell and buy Pez dispensers. It's a great story. And, as you no doubt know by now, it's not true. It was the fabrication of a public relations whiz who won an ...

EBay has said it will pay $65 million to buy out Ecorp's share of a joint venture that established eBay's online auction presence in Australia and New Zealand nearly three years ago. The buyout, which will require the stamp of approval from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board, will have n...

Hewlett-Packard has reported a $2 billion third-quarter net loss, which it attributed to a weakened economy and costs associated with the $18.7 billion Compaq merger in May. The company booked revenue of $16.5 billion for the quarter ended July 31st, compared with $18.2 billion in second-quarter ...

The U.S. Security and Exchange Commission's investigation of fraud at e-mail services firm Critical Path has yielded charges against three former company executives for participating in a plan to fraudulently bolster financials in 2000. Two of the former executives have agreed to settle the case....

When Amazon slashed its free shipping threshold from $99 to $49, that made sense, and the company's latest move from $49 to $25 was logical, too. Amazon has reserved the right to reverse its course. It still cautions that it might drop this "long-term test" outright at some future date. But does ...

A few years ago, much content and many services could be had for free, even though the companies providing those services were not posting profits. But then the bills arrived, online advertising revenue dropped, and the free-content providers had to tighten their belts and look for other ways to ...

Internet companies disclosed plans to cut 1,193 jobs in August, fewer than in July but enough to mark the second straight month in which dot-com layoffs exceeded 1,000, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "There is certainly the potential for us to see more cuts for t...

Online advertising giant DoubleClick has announced it will pay $450,000 and revamp its business practices to end a privacy investigation launched nearly three years ago by the attorneys general of 10 states. Over the course of the inquiry, investigators sought to discern whether DoubleClick misus...

Amazon.com has once again cut by half the amount shoppers must spend to qualify for its Super Saver free shipping offer, further escalating the price war it began early this year. The minimum order size for free shipping is now $25, down from $49. Amazon described the move as a "long-term test of...

The DVD industry is no stranger to significant infighting over formats, with manufacturers supporting one of two rival standards, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW. And it appears that the standards battle will drag on for the foreseeable future. In the latest maneuver, Toshiba and NEC have announced that they ...

In a rare piece of e-commerce venture funding news, online bargain retailer SmartBargains said it has received a $9 million cash infusion. The company, which has secured $47 million in total venture funding to date, also announced expanded marketing deals with MSN and AOL. Those pacts are designe...

For all the financial reeling and corporate belt-tightening in many e-commerce sectors, experts say no tears need be shed for the online porn industry. While exact revenue figures are tough to unearth, established players have not been significantly hurt by current economic woes, though competiti...