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Juniper Networks has announced plans to acquire rival Unisphere Networks from its parent company, Siemens AG, in an effort to win market share from dominant telecom equipment provider Cisco Systems. The cash and stock deal is valued at about $740 million. "Juniper paid $380 million in cash for a ...

The driving force behind Sears' $1.98 billion purchase of Lands' End was the clothing brand itself. But Lands' End's reputation for merging catalog and online sales and providing high-quality customer service played a role as well. According to GartnerG2 analyst Kevin Murphy, the trick for Sears ...

The best way to learn is by doing. Along the way, e-commerce has found that some ideas that seemed promising at first are best left in the dustbin of technology history. "Good companies are flexible enough to try something and [then] pull back if it doesn't work the way they had hoped or if it ca...

Although Microsoft had to cut the price of its Xbox console last week to keep pace with rival Sony in the gaming hardware market, the company is poised to announce a $1 billion investment in an online game service that could smoke the competition. "Microsoft is going to do a land grab here," Jupiter...

Economic doldrums continue to erode confidence and drive cost-cutting among IT buyers, according to Gartner Dataquest, and all segments of the IT services market will feel the pinch. IT services revenue will grow a meager 2.8 percent to $557 billion this year, the research firm said. However, Abe...

The strange saga of music swapping site Napster took another twist as media giant Bertelsmann announced it has reached an agreement to purchase the site and said most of the key executives who resigned last week will return. The deal calls for Bertelsmann to pay up to $8 million to the venture ca...

When you want something done right, there are times when doing it yourself is not the best option. Even the best companies need to recognize the limitations of their operational expertise and know when to outsource certain e-business functions. When deciding what to outsource, Aberdeen Group rese...

In an effort to reach the 85 percent of consumers who do not yet buy travel online, Orbitz has announced it will provide direct desktop access to its fares and its online search engine to travel agents. Both Travelocity and Expedia, the company's two main competitors in terms of number of visitor...

For online shoppers, making a purchase often seems relatively straightforward. Point and click, check the order, enter credit card information, and the transaction is a done deal. Authorization is delivered within seconds. Behind the scenes, it is not so easy. In the blink of an eye between an in...

Dell Computer reported that first-quarter earnings dropped compared with year-ago figures, although the number two computer maker beat analysts' expectations and saw revenue rise. The company reported first-quarter net earnings of $457 million on revenue of $8.1 billion, handily surpassing the $7...

The U.S. District Court judge presiding over the Microsoft antitrust settlement has posed several questions about the extent of proposed penalties to be levied against the software giant. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly indicated that while legal precedent affords her far-reaching powers to determin...

Internet radio advocates have told a U.S. panel that a mandate requiring Web stations to pay for songs they broadcast could put many such stations out of business. But representatives of the recording industry countered that Internet piracy threatens their bottom lines as well. The recording indu...

After posting disappointing financial results and warning Wall Street that it would be tough to meet forecasts, IBM plans to cut $1 billion to $2 billion in costs starting this year, company CEO Sam Palmisano told financial analysts. Palmisano stopped short of detailing exactly how IBM will cut c...

Two more companies have accused online payment site PayPal of using their technology without permission, and the company's relationship with MasterCard may be in jeopardy, PayPal disclosed in its quarterly report. The loss of MasterCard compatibility would be a significant blow because 15 percent...

While Big Blue's name was not always synonymous with e-commerce, the technology giant has become a major player in the sector in recent years. IBM made that transition in part through savvy partnerships with software companies specializing in e-business, and in part by offering its WebSphere soft...