Articles by Nora Macaluso

E-tail giant Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Toysrus.com, the online division of venerable toy store chain Toys "R" Us (NYSE: TOY), announced a partnership Thursday to sell toys and video games The new co-branded store will be up and running this fall, in time for the crucial holiday season, and will be followed by a baby products store in the first ...

E-tailers, even the most popular ones, are universally failing to provide high-quality online customer service, according to a new survey from GartnerGroup, Inc In a survey released Tuesday of the top 50 consumer e-tail sites, Gartner did not find one that rated "good" or "excellent" for online customer service.

U.S. government authorities said Monday they have charged four people and a pharmaceutical supply company with conspiring to sell drugs over the Internet to people without valid prescriptions The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that the Norfolk Men's Clinic made such drugs as Viagra, Xenical, Celebrex, P...

While online auction giant eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) continues to outpace competitors in the United States, QXL.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: QXLC) has edged ahead in the latest round of the European online auction version of "King of the Hill." This week, QXL linked up with Internet portal Lycos, Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS) to boost QXL's visibility across Europe. Accordi...

Ailing online pharmacy PlanetRx.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLRX) took another hit Thursday when William J. Razzouk resigned to become a venture partner at Paradigm Capital Partners LLC of Memphis, Tennessee Razzouk guided the San Francisco-based PlanetRx through its site launch and its initial public offering last October. He also helped oversee the expans...

April's e-commerce bloodbath had a dragging effect on the amount of money raised by venture capital-backed companies in the second quarter, according to a report released Tuesday by research company VentureOne E-commerce companies saw a 32 percent decline in financing during the quarter, as investors became more selective about pouring money into n...

Barnesandnoble.com (Nasdaq: BNBN) reported a wider-than-expected loss for the second quarter late Monday, as the company spent money on a slew of new ventures amid a general slowdown in e-commerce. Company officials also said the loss for the year may be higher than previously predicted Sales for the quarter rose 77 percent to $67.4 million (US$), ...

Name-your-price e-tailer Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) announced its fourth international venture Monday, saying it will bring its service to Japan through an alliance with Japanese Internet investor Softbank Corp The Norwalk, Connecticut-based Priceline will start its Japanese service the way it begins operations in all markets, initially offering ...

eBay, Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) said it will get $1.2 million (US$) under a lawsuit settlement with ReverseAuction.com, Inc., which had been accused of illegally obtaining eBay user IDs and addresses in order to send them unwanted and misleading e-mail According to eBay, ReverseAuction "harvested eBay e-mail addresses and perpetrated a widespread spammin...

E-tail bellwether Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) beat analysts' second quarter bottom-line estimates by two cents per share, but the results still failed to reassure investors The online retailer said its loss rose to $115.70 million (US$) in the second quarter, in comparison with a loss of $82.79 million in the same period last year. While the company's re...

eBay, Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) reported stronger than expected results for the second quarter, as revenue rose 97 percent and the number of people using the online auction service grew "The top line for the second quarter was in fact the bottom line: eBay's record profits," said Chief Financial Officer Gary Bengier. "These profits were powered by record...

According to data released Monday by Chicago, Illinois-based employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 24 of the 122 dot-com companies that have laid off workers in the past eight months subsequently ceased operations A month ago, a separate Challenger survey found that 1,263 of the almost 5,400 jobs lost since December came from 17 dot-coms th...

Online banking is growing in popularity, with nearly 23 million Americans expected to pay their bills and access their financial accounts online by 2004, according to research firm IDC In 1999, some six million households used the Internet to do at least some of their banking, according to the firm.

Webvan Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: WBVN) has reported that its aggressive expansion plan resulted in steeper losses for the second quarter when compared with a year earlier, even as revenue surged The online grocer, which has been investing heavily to expand into new markets and products, reported a pro forma loss before items of $57.1 million (US$), or 1...

Business-to-business (B2B) software maker Ariba, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA) reported surprisingly strong results for the quarter ended June 30th, fueled by a number of major agreements signed in recent months Revenue for the third fiscal quarter rose 578 percent from a year earlier to $80.7 million (US$). The company posted a loss before charges of $11.3 ...

Santa Clara, California-based Yahoo! Inc. announced strong second-quarter earnings and better than expected revenue growth Tuesday, sending its stock soaring and calming investor fears The Internet bellwether said revenues for the quarter rose 110 percent to $270.12 million (US$) from $128.57 million in the same quarter last year. Net income totale...

According to a report from market analysis firm Datamonitor, poor online service cost Internet retailers a combined $6.1 billion (US$) in sales last year, and could balloon to more than $173 billion Shoppers filling up online carts and then clicking away before completing their purchases is a large part of the problem. Some 7.8 percent of abandoned...

According to analysts at Chase H&Q and US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, general stock market jitters have resulted in a larger-than-expected drop in trading volume and could have a negative impact on second quarter results On Wednesday, Chase analyst Gregory Smith and US Bancorp's Stephen Franco lowered their revenue estimates for E*Trade Group, Inc. (Nas...

Name-your-own-price Web retailer Priceline.com announced Wednesday that it is teaming with Internet investor group General Atlantic Partners LLC to launch Priceline.com Europe in the fourth quarter of this year Priceline.com Europe will begin by offering airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars and long-distance telephone services in the United Ki...

Further shrinking what is already a highly competitive e-commerce sector, online grocer Webvan Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: WBVN) announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire rival HomeGrocer.com for $1.2 billion (US$) in stock The move is yet another step in Webvan's strategy to expand its geographic reach, along with moving beyond groceries to become a...