Archive

A year ago, approximately 20 dot-com companies -- including half a dozen e-commerce startups -- paid US$2.2 million for 30 seconds of advertising time during television's most watched sporting event, the Super Bowl. However, not only are there no new pure-plays reportedly coming on board to advertis...

First, there was the thrill of living on the edge. Long before the e-commerce shakeout began, analysts warned of its arrival. And when the first collapses finally came, they carried with them all the excitement of a building demolition. For a while, each and every subsequent wipeout had our undivi...

As the 2000 holidays fade into the background, with e-commerce neither falling on its face nor proving that its growing pains are history, one might think that the industry is ready to take a step back and regroup for the future. However, if last year's post-holiday business was any indication, e...

The Worldwide E-Commerce Fraud Prevention Network, whose members include Amazon.com, American Express, Buy.com and Expedia.com, has announced the launch of MerchantFraudSquad.com, a new site dedicated to combating online fraud. MerchantFraudSquad is the first initiative of the Network, a non-pr...

Despite rapid-fire e-commerce closures and other setbacks in 2000, 57 percent of all online buyers -- and more than three-quarters of those who make frequent purchases via the Web -- are shopping less at traditional retail stores for the first time, according to a new study released Monday by busin...

A weak outlook from Ariba, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA) pulled shares of other business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce software makers lower on Friday, as the company's quarterly report sparked a rash of analyst downgrades and questions about future growth of the sector. Ariba fell 8.19 to 35.19. Other B2B st...

CSFBdirect (NYSE: DIR) picked up 0.38 to 4.94 Friday on a reported joint venture with Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. The companies reportedly invested a total of US$20 million to provide an online service for private investors in Hong Kong, with each company contributing half. Accord...

Digital Island, Inc. (Nasdaq: ISLD) slipped 0.09 to 4.66 Friday after the company said its president is leaving to join a venture capital firm. Leo Spiegel said he will leave the San Francisco, California-based Internet services company to take a position with Mission Ventures in San Diego, Califo...

Gateway, Inc. (NYSE: GTW) fell 1.80 to 21.10 Friday after the company reported a fourth-quarter loss, and announced a restructuring plan that includes cutting more than 10 percent of its staff and taking a US$50 million pre-tax charge to first-quarter results. The San Diego, California-based comput...

While individual e-tailers have come under fire from some quarters for underwhelming holiday sales, many online shopping malls and portals doubled their growth rates over the same period, according to the Yankee Group. "The numbers are likely to be encouraging for portals to keep the mall concep...

To the advertiser, the meaning of "Click Here" varies with the economic seasons. When times are good, there's a whole lot of clicking going on. When times are tough, as they often were last year, online advertisers sometimes begin to question the viability of the medium. As with anything else in bu...

Boosted by strong customer service reviews, QVC.com rose to the top of Forrester Research's General Merchandise PowerRankings, beating both Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. According to the report, a lack of privacy policy links on checkout pages, vague inventory status information and slow phone-base...

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Thursday that his state has filed a suit for alleged labor law violations against Walker Digital, the technology company owned by Priceline.com founder Jay Walker. The suit asks that the workers recently laid off by Walker Digital receive 60 d...

Ariba (Nasdaq: ARBA) announced earnings on Thursday that beat estimates, but was nonetheless downgraded by half a dozen analysts who raised questions about the company's earnings and growth rate. The business-to-business (B2B) software provider reported that revenues for the first quarter of 2...

Napster unveiled its latest upgrade Thursday, complete with a link to CDNow -- the first commercial use for the controversial file-swapping service to date and the most visible sign of its new relationship with Bertelsmann AG. The appearance of a link to CDNow on the Napster page comes 10 weeks...