Archive

Are Americans ready to exchange "I dos" or pay their last respects to loved ones via the Internet? Probably not, but an increasing number of computer users are finding their way to the Web to plan weddings and funerals. If it sounds too gimmicky, consider the possible impact these two industri...

Ministers from the 15 nations of the European Union (EU) adopted a copyright directive Monday aimed at updating copyright laws for the digital age to prevent Internet and high-tech piracy of music, books and other copyrighted works. The ministers approved the so-called Copyright Directive by co...

Homestore.com (Nasdaq: HOMS) rose US$2.26 to $25.48 in morning trading Tuesday, after announcing an alliance with Bank of America (NYSE: BAC). The bank and the online real-estate company said they had launched an online marketplace offering home-buying, financing, maintenance and improvement servi...

On Monday, Internet powerhouse eBay and other prominent investors took a combined US$15 million stake in ReturnBuy, a company that resells returned goods for both e-tailers and retailers. Ashburn, Virginia based ReturnBuy said that by using online auction house eBay and other online channels to ...

Months after the slowdown hit the U.S. economy, a consensus has failed to materialize on which came first: the dot-com shakeout chicken or the economic downturn egg? "The implosion of tech companies and the evaporation of their funding is more a symptom of the economic slowdown than a cause," B...

Providing a welcome dose of good news amid a flurry of dire earnings forecasts, e-tail giant Amazon.com said Monday that it would post a narrower-than-expected loss for the first quarter due to surging electronic sales. The Seattle, Washington-based online bellwether reported that it would post ...

Facing little prospect of turning a profit with a standalone Web business anytime soon, NBC said Monday it would buy out and absorb NBCi after less than two years of independent operations for the portal. The US$138 million deal reflects the woes of the overall Internet portal industry, which ...

Universal Music Group stepped forward Monday to announce that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire subscription music service EMusic in an all-cash deal worth approximately US$23 million. Redwood City, California-based EMusic is a potentially valuable acquisition for Universal becaus...

Microsoft announced a new alliance with Partner America on Friday designed to help small businesses venture into the world of e-commerce. Partner America, a public-private partnership between the United States Conference of Mayors and American Management Services, will be co-sponsoring a series...

The Internet promises a number of benefits to consumers and the economy, but there is "a real danger" that those benefits will not be realized if consumers identify the Internet with fraud operators, a U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) official testified Thursday. "The boom in e-commerce has ...

U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans told Latin American trade ministers Wednesday that e-commerce initiatives must play an integral part in the creation of any Western Hemisphere free trade agreements. "President Bush recognizes, as do I, that e-commerce will continue to be one of the driving forces...

The leaders of the Internet world are rushing into the abyss, coming up with new ways to charge users for their once-free services every day. The latest entrant in the pay-to-play derby is Yahoo!, which will offer "premium" financial information for a monthly fee. It's a tempting strategy to fol...

Continuing a raucous week in the online music sector, subscription music download service EMusic announced Thursday that it had signed a non-binding letter of intent to be acquired by a "major publicly held media company," in an all-cash transaction worth approximately US$24 million. Although Re...

In a bid to survive in a slumping economy, Egghead.com said Friday that it has given pink slips to 21 workers in the company's Menlo Park, California offices and to 157 workers in its Vancouver, Washington facility. The cut will reduce Egghead.com's workforce by 29 percent. The company said that...

As the New Economy fights its way into mainstream American commerce, minority-owned businesses are experiencing a struggle similar to the one they have endured offline for years. It's an old story in a new setting: a scenario with which Americans are all too familiar. The potential cultural dang...