Articles by Andy Wang

While e-commerce is soaring and breaking all records this holiday season, it also appears that Internet scam artists are having a field day It is this dark side of e-commerce that was brought to light when federal and state regulators recently cracked down on 72 operators of allegedly fraudulent online marketing operations.

Digital media company Encoding.com, which helps technology companies, music companies and e-commerce sites optimize their digital audio and video content, announced today that it has raised $48 million in a round of funding led by Wasserstein Adelson Ventures Other investors include America Online, Microsoft, CBS, Intel, NBC, The Barksdale Group, C...

Applications service provider and Web hosting company NaviSite (Nasdaq: NAVI) announced today that it has been selected by specialty women's clothing retailer Dress Barn (Nasdaq: DBRN) to help launch its new e-commerce site. Dress Barn operates 674 brick-and-mortar stores in 43 states The site will be launched next spring, with NaviSite providing h...

Online vitamin and nutritional supplement retailer VitaminShoppe.com (Nasdaq: VSHP) announced today that it has signed a two-year, multi-million dollar (US$) alliance with America Online (NYSE:AOL) Under the terms of the deal, VitaminShoppe.com will become an anchor tenant in the "Diet & Nutrition" department of AOL's Shop@AOL marketplace. In addit...

Investors include America Online and BMG Entertainment, one of the "big five" record companies. Other investors include Bertelsmann Ventures, the Mayfield Fund and Trans Cosmos USA, which has also invested in companies such as Liquid Audio, RealNetworks and Spinner. The funding announcement comes one week after Riffage.com announced an e-commerce agreement with barnesandnoble.com. In addition, Riffage.com and AOL recently announced a digital music distribution deal to promote Riffage.com's offerings throughout many of AOL's brands. Riffage.com, which launched in March, also has agreements with companies such as CNET, Digital on Demand, eCircles.com, Listen.com, MusicMatch, RealNetworks, Scour.net and ZDNet. "We view our relationship with Riffage.com, with its community-building approach and growing music catalog of talented artists, as an important component of our own digital music strategy," said Ted Leonsis, president of AOL's Interactive Properties Group. Funding For Technology Riffage.com plans to spend its new funding on technology that will allow the company to expand on its personalization, community and music functionality. Some of the money will also be spent on marketing programs. "In addition to the capital infusion, we're looking forward to the synergistic and cross-business opportunities presented by our new relationships with these leading companies," said Ken Wirt, CEO of Riffage.com. Bertelsmann Ventures is the venture fund of Bertelsmann AG. Bertelsmann, notably, has a collection of businesses that are already or could be future partners with Riffage.com. Bertelsmann is the world's third-largest media company with annual sales of approximately $18 billion. The company's subsidiaries include Random House, Bantam and BMG. Bertelsmann has stakes in more than 600 companies, including AOL Europe, barnesandnoble.com, CompuServe Europe and Lycos Europe. BMG Entertainment owns more than 200 record labels in 53 countries, including Arista, RCA and Ariola Music, as well as the world's largest mail-order music club. The company also has a stake in online music community site GetMusic.com, which is a joint venture with Universal Music Group, About Riffage.com Based in Palo Alto, California, Riffage.com was founded by Wirt, who was previously vice president of corporate marketing for Diamond Multimedia Systems. At Diamond Multimedia, Wirt was responsible for the strategic planning and launch of the portable Rio MP3 player. Investors include America Online and BMG Entertainment, one of the "big five" record companies. Other investors include Bertelsmann Ventures, the Mayfield Fund and Trans Cosmos USA, which has also invested in companies such as Liquid Audio, RealNetworks and Spinner.

Online retailer Bluefly.com (Nasdaq: BLFY), which sells designer apparel and accessories at outlet-store prices, announced today that it has expanded its strategic relationship with Internet infrastructure company Inktomi (Nasdaq: INKT) Under the terms of the expanded alliance, Bluefly gets added exposure on Inktomi's Shopping Engine. Bluefly's pro...

Life-science and healthcare business-to-business solutions provider Chemdex Corp. (Nasdaq: CMDX) announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire SpecialtyMD.com in an all-stock transaction worth approximately $115 million (US$) SpecialtyMD.com is an online information, marketing and sales channel for specialist physicians and procurement...

Ask Jeeves (Nasdaq: ASKJ), the online question-answering service for companies and consumers, announced today that Compaq and Microsoft subsidiary WebTV Networks have expanded and renewed their subscriptions to Ask Jeeves' Corporate Question Answering Service The service is designed to lower the cost of customer acquisition for e-commerce businesse...

The initial public offering of Preview Systems (Nasdaq: PRVW), which develops technology that allows e-commerce retailers and other businesses to distribute trial versions of their software, music and other products, was a huge winner on Wall Street on Wednesday. The initial public offering was priced at $21 a share for 3.8 million shares, above the revised range of $16 to $18 after an original range of $10 to $12. Shares of Preview Travel climbed nearly 300 percent on Wednesday, gaining 62-3/4 to close at 82-3/4...

Online network Go2Net (Nasdaq: GNET) and MyComputer.com, a provider of integrated Web-site management tools, announced a deal today to offer site analysis for businesses that use Go2Net's free Hypermart Web hosting service HyperMart, combined with Go2Net's Virtual Avenue and FreeYellow.com, provide services for more than 750,000 small and medium-si...

Online Latin America network StarMedia (Nasdaq: STRM) announced today that it has formed a one-year e-commerce and marketing agreement with Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL) to promote Dell's products and services throughout StarMedia's properties "StarMedia's strong affiliation with Latin America's online consumers and Dell's proven Internet dire...

European sports destination site Sports.com, a majority-owned subsidiary of SportsLine.com (Nasdaq: SPLN), announced today that it will raise $49 million (US$) in a second round of funding through the issuance of preferred stock The financing will be led by Sports Capital Partners -- which manages the IMG/Chase Sports Capital funds -- and affiliate...

Online real estate brokerage zipRealty.com announced today that it has raised $16 million (US$) in a second round of funding led by venture capital firm Benchmark Capital Previous investors Vanguard Venture Partners and Barrington Partners also participated in the round.

America Online (NYSE: AOL) and job search/recruitment site Monster.com announced today that they have forged a four-year, exclusive $100 million (US$) deal to offer Monster.com's career-management resources to AOL users across seven AOL brands Under the terms of the deal, Monster.com will become the exclusive career-search service offered to AOL's ...

The stock of online broadcaster NetRadio (Nasdaq: NETR) climbed nearly 29 percent on Tuesday, gaining 2-5/16 to 10-3/8 after the company announced what looks to be a significant deal with Microsoft. Under the terms of the deal, NetRadio's 120 channels of music and information will be offered in Microsoft's Windows Media format. NetRadio will be prominently featured on Microsoft's windowsmedia.com site...

Shares of Bid.com (Nasdaq: BIDS), a Canadian auction service, gained more than 27 percent on Wednesday, climbing 1-9/32 to 6 as rumors began to circulate on online message boards about the possibility of the company being acquired. Bid.com would be a relatively inexpensive takeover target for a company like eBay. Even after Wednesday's gain, the company is worth only about $296 million, and the stock is well off its 52-week high of 22-5/8...

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) announced today that it will make a minority investment in luxury goods retailer Ashford.com (Nasdaq: ASFD) and that the two companies have agreed on a multimillion-dollar (US$) marketing initiative In exchange for a $10 million investment and the marketing agreement, Amazon.com will receive approximately 16.6 percent of A...

Downloadable music seller EMusic.com (Nasdaq: EMUS) announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire privately-held music destination site Tunes.com, whose properties include RollingStone.com and DownBeatJazz.com The stock-for-stock deal is valued at approximately $130 million (US$), based upon the closing price of EMusic.com stock on Fri...

UK-based entertainment and shopping guide Virgin Net announced today that it has selected upstart search engine Google to provide search services for its Web site The deal is Google's first with a company in the United Kingdom.

E-commerce infrastructure companies are the stars of Wall Street right now, with stocks that most people have never heard of rising to hard-to-believe heights Companies such as Commerce One (Nasdaq: CMRC) and Ariba (Nasdaq: ARBAI), which develop solutions that power e-commerce business, may well have the brightest of futures, but are still in the r...