Archive

Online travel site Travelocity.com announced Monday that it has entered into agreements with Lufthansa and British Airways to become the first global online travel partner for both airlines. "Leveraging Travelocity's strong brand in the U.S. and superior customer service, these airlines will be...

Reports of security glitches and inadvertent revelations of user identities on Web sites no longer carry the shock value they once did. That's because they have materialized time after time, causing consumers to become a bit more numb with each incident. By now it is almost de rigeur to hear of ...

Dutch supermarket giant Royal Ahold announced Monday that it is set to acquire all outstanding shares of U.S. online grocery unit Peapod, saying that it sees a "growing and strong" demand in the home delivery market. As part of the estimated US$35 million transaction, Ahold said it will offer $2....

USA Networks said Monday it will buy the controlling stake in travel site Expedia.com from Microsoft, as the entertainment company makes a major push into online travel. Los Angeles-based USA Networks said it has agreed to purchase up to 37.5 million shares of Expedia stock, including more than ...

Defunct online grocer Webvan and three of its affiliates -- Webvan Operations, Webvan Bay Area, and HomeGrocer.com -- formally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday. Close on the heels of the bankruptcy filing, a class action suit was filed against a group of Webvan officers and direc...

UK online travel agency Lastminute.com said Monday it has acquired Urbanbite.com, a Web-based company that delivers take-out food in the UK and the Netherlands. Lastminute said it will issue 442,151 shares to pay for the acquisition, valuing Urbanbite at about 140,000 British pounds (approximatel...

Remember when e-commerce used to be about the technology? Never mind profitability ratios or shakeouts. In the beginning, it was all about the high-tech novelty of shopping online, the excitement of the "never before." Isn't that why we started paying attention in the first place? But the first...

HomeRuns.com, a privately held company that ran an online grocery service in Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., said late Thursday it has stopped service in both markets and is beginning the "orderly winding-down" of its operations. The Burlington, Massachusetts-based company said its "...

Saying that its recent efforts to aggressively streamline expenses and boost sales are paying off, Internet postage firm Stamps.com reported Thursday that its net loss from continuing operations for the second quarter beat Wall Street estimates. "We have done a tremendous job of cutting costs ove...

The American Arbitration Association (AAA), a nonprofit conflict management and dispute resolution provider, announced Thursday it has launched a new portal aimed at minimizing business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce disagreements. "AAA is reacting to the current e-commerce climate," AAA vice presi...

The profile of the typical online shopper is changing. In 1996, the typical Internet user was young, relatively wealthy and male. However, over the past five years, use of the Internet has spread over different demographics, signifying the importance of the Internet to mainstream marketing and ad...

Succeeding in any competitive business requires a killer instinct. And it's especially true in an industry as competitive, fast-growing and increasingly crowded as online travel. No one can be bullied and hope to be around in the long run. So Southwest Airlines is right to stand up for what it ...

Online payment service PayPal is at the center of two controversies, including a new lawsuit filed by NoBidding, the owner of auction site Bidville.com. The lawsuit accuses PayPal of reneging on an agreement made in December to provide Bidville -- formerly known as AuxPal -- with its payment serv...

Online auctioneer eBay and electronics e-tailer X10.com saw big gains in traffic in June, according to monthly statistics released Thursday by Jupiter Media Metrix. However, the research firm said the rankings are misleading because of the companies' use of pop-up and pop-under ads, which automat...

AOL Time Warner said Thursday it has struck an expanded marketing deal with Philips Electronics, under which the two companies will pursue development of new television-based e-commerce platforms. Focused largely on cooperative marketing in the European market, where Amsterdam-based Phillips has...