Articles by James Hollander

Saying that their aim is to give customers more control over their long-distance, wireless and Internet accounts, AT&T unveiled a new customer service online site Tuesday The site is an obvious response to the tele-communications giant's recognition that its e-commerce potential is expanding as its customers get more and more used to settling accou...

For e-commerce companies, raising brand awareness through offline promotion can be an extremely costly yet crucial part of their marketing strategy. On Friday, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced that it had scored a significant coup in that regard Microsoft will launch Expedia Radio, a one-hour, syndicated weekly radio program that is designed as a...

BuyItNow.com's command was apparently Snap.com and XOOM.com's wish, as the two popular Web sites announced Monday that they have entered into partnership agreements with the e-commerce retail site Snap.com, the Internet portal company from NBC television and CNET, will take a 3.6 percent stake in the company, in exchange for providing BuyItNow.com ...

For first-time automobile buyers, one of the few things as frustrating as visiting a car dealership is figuring out which insurance company to use. On Thursday, online auto retailer Autobytel.com (Nasdaq: ABTL) announced a partnership that could help customers avoid that hassle Autobytel.com has teamed up with InsurQuote -- a technology provider fo...

Moving to strengthen its presence in the Asian market, America Online announced Friday that it has acquired a 10 percent stake in Internet company China.com The agreement also gives AOL the right to exercise an option to acquire an additional 15 percent stake in the company in the future. China.com has filed a registration statement with the SEC to...

Music and entertainment retailer Musicland (NYSE: MLG) is hoping that e-commerce will turn its fortunes around. Musicland, which operates more than 1,300 brick-and-mortar stores including Sam Goody, Suncoast, MediaPlay and OnCue, announced Wednesday that it has launched e-commerce stores for all of its brick-and-mortar brands The move comes as Musi...

Banks like electronic billing because it is cost-efficient and can be faster than traditional forms of securing payment Now, three major banks are teaming up to streamline the process. Today, U.S. banking giants Chase Manhattan (NYSE: CMB), First Union (NYSE: FTU) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) announced that they are forming a new company that will a...

Last month, business-to-business online marketplace BizBuyer.com announced a $1 million (US$) seed round of financing from investors including eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman. Today, the buyer-drive marketplace -- founded in September of 1998 and based in Santa, Monica, California -- was greatly bolstered with the announcement of a $5 million commitment from @Ventures, the venture-capital arm of leading Internet incubator CMGI (Nasdaq: CMGI)...

In a direct blow to Amazon.com's (Nasdaq: AMZN) auction strategy, leading portal site Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) unveiled a new program today that is designed to help sellers with large inventories of items manage their auctions more efficiently The new service, known as Yahoo! Auction Express, allows businesses of any size -- or even individuals -- to ...

It seemed like only a matter of time before the various companies that have Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen as an investor started signing deals. One such deal was announced on Thursday. Mercata, a new e-commerce company that helps consumers get together as a group to receive discounts on merchandise, announced that it has partnered with online network Go2Net (Nasdaq: GNET) to create a new category on Go2Net's shopping channel...

One of the partners behind Buy.com, E*Trade, GeoCities,Yahoo! and a host of other prominent Internet properties has apparently taken a liking to Global Sports (Nasdaq: GSPT), an e-commerce provider for a number of sporting goods retailers Global Sports said Friday that SOFTBANK Corp., a Tokyo-based provider of technology information, with stakes in...

In a move that could add shareholder value, leading utility software provider Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) announced today that it plans to spin off its Internet Tools business unit to create a new, independent company Symantec, which manufactures such well-known products as Norton Antivirus and Visual Page, plans to leverage its position in the Java de...

Online investment bank Wit Capital (Nasdaq: WITC), which went public on Friday, suddenly has some major competition. On Monday, online investment bank E*OFFERING, which is backed by online broker E*Trade (Nasdaq: EGRP), launched its Web site Wit Capital has distinguished itself by offering individual investors access to shares of initial public off...

Direct e-commerce company XOOM.com (Nasdaq: XMCM), which will soon become part of NBC's new Internet division, added to its wide variety of services on Wednesday with the acquisition of MightyMail Networks MightyMail Networks is the developer of MightyMail, an e-mail platform that gives companies an online one-to-one marketing strategy. XOOM.com ac...

INTERSHOP Communications (Neuer Markt: ISH), a leading provider of online store software, announced on Thursday a new partnership with Compaq Computer Corporation to deliver cross-platform e-commerce solutions for enterprises and Internet service providers. Under this new deal, INTERSHOP will provide e-commerce software running on Windows NT and UNIX for Compaq ProLiant and AlphaServer server platforms...

IBM (NYSE: IBM), arguably the king of e-commerce, is best known for its large-scale enterprise e-commerce solutions. However, the company announced on Wednesday, new products and services that enable consumers, entrepreneurs and small businesses to leverage the power of the Internet for e-business. IBM touts these new offerings as being designed for price-conscious buyers that value ease of use...

Ranked among the top three e-commerce software firms in Europe, German-based Intershop Communications announced a 98 percent sales growth in Q1 1999, in comparison with the same period last year. The company also predicted that it will see rising profit for the remainder of the year. While U.S. market leadership has, thus far, eluded Intershop, the company has made significant inroads with large U.S. ISPs and Web hosting services like MindSpring , Concentric and PSINet...

James Barksdale, of Netscape fame, is now heading to e-commerce. The 56 year old former Microsoft nemesis has founded The Barksdale Group, an investment and advisory firm that focuses on Internet software and services start-ups. On Thursday, Barksdale's group announced that it would invest in e-commerce newbie, HomeGrocer.com, which sells groceries to consumers from its Web site...

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Fears of the year 2000 (Y2K) computer "bug" have spurred an entire industry of products and services aimed at fixing potential software and hardware glitches before the clock strikes midnight on News Year's Eve. As the deadline draws near, those who hope to capitalize on the Y2K phenomenon are moving quickly, lining up for last-minute profits. The e-commerce industry is no exception...