Articles by Nora Macaluso

The number of Americans with access to the Internet has grown 16 percent over the past year, with 58 percent of U.S. households now online, audience measurement firm Nielsen//NetRatings said Monday That rate, which covers July 2000 to July 2001, is slower than the 41 percent growth seen the previous year. Growth is now "being driven by late adopter...

Online content company Salon Media Group (Nasdaq: SALN) got a much-needed boost after the close of trading Thursday, in the formof a US$2.5 million cash infusion from a group led by the investment firm WRHambrecht & Co. and its chairman, Bill Hambrecht Salon made the announcement as it reported a crushing 45 percent year-over-year drop in revenue f...

Of the Fortune 100 companies, 81 are now advertising online, up from 67 that did so a year ago, according to a report released Thursday by Jupiter Media Metrix However, Jupiter said that major media buyers are not increasing their spending onInternet ads as fast as smaller advertisers are.

Earnest Thompson, director of corporate marketing and brand communicationsfor Siemens in the United States, recently spoke with the E-Commerce Times about the company's Internet advertising campaigns. Siemens AG (NYSE: SI), Europe's largest electronics and electrical engineering firm, has its hands in the automation, communications, lighting, medi...

Job search Web site Monster.com helped parent company TMP Worldwide (Nasdaq: TMPW) beat analyst estimates in the secondquarter, as a weak economy resulted in more job changes, TMP Worldwide said Tuesday The New York City-based staffing and advertising company reported income adjusted for special items of US$36.1 million, or 32 cents per share, up f...

Ebay on Tuesday said it had acquired HomesDirect, an online auctioneer of foreclosed properties Ebay, which did not disclose the purchase price, said the acquisition would "significantly expand" its real-estate category. HomesDirect was responsible for the sales of more than 116,000 homes last year, all auctioned over the Internet, according to eBa...

Internet trend-watcher Jupiter Media Metrix on Monday lowered its short-term outlook for the e-commerce sector, saying such factors as lack of capital and weak consumer spending are continuing to hurt the industry At the same time, the report emphasized the long-term staying power of the Internet.

The growing use of "pro forma" financial results -- that is, when companies report income or loss figures excluding a host of supposedly "one-time" charges -- is drawing attention from critics who say companies may be publishing pro forma earnings to make quarterly earnings reports look better than they actually are The U.S. Securities and Exchange...

Cost reductions and lower marketing spending helped luxury goods e-tailer Ashford.com (Nasdaq: ASFD) narrow its loss for the first quarter ended June 30th, the company said Thursday Sales were below year-earlier levels, however, as a promotional campaign and an inventory reduction lowered revenue. Repeat customers accounted for 33 percent of total ...

The use of peer-to-peer networking among Internet users -- for example, on controversial music file-swapping site Napster -- is changing the way people exchange information, and companies ignore the trend at their peril, according to a report released Thursday by IDC The rise of Napster shows that "virtual communities" have the potential toaffect t...

The latest quarterly report from Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) shows that the company has successfully transformed itself from an overextended, money-losing dot-com into an online travel company poised for success, analysts said Priceline shares soared in morning trading Wednesday, following news that the "name your price" e-tailer posted a pro form...

Online travel company Expedia.com (Nasdaq: EXPE) announced Monday that revenue for the fourth quarter ended June 30th more than doubled from the year-earlier quarter, saying that demand for the company's services rose as a weak economy led travelers to search the Internet for bargains The company also reported higher earnings before items and a sig...

Securities analysts, once regarded as independent authorities on the value of publicly traded companies, are finding their statusdiminished amid investor lawsuits and reports of conflicts of interest, particularly regarding cases involving high-tech stocks Merrill Lynch's recent $400,000 settlement with a former client who alleged he was misled abo...

European online travel giant Ebookers (Nasdaq: EBKR) on Monday reported a 91 percent surge in gross sales for the first half of this year, and repeated its goal of reaching cash-flow profitability by the end of 2001 or the first quarter of 2002 Ebookers said sales for the second quarter ended June 30th climbed to 48.7million pounds (US$69.3 million...

Online car company Autobytel (Nasdaq: ABTL) reported a revenue drop and widening losses for the second quarter ended in June, saying a weak economy caused dealers to curtail their online marketing programs New products and stepped-up dealer communications, along with a plannedacquisition, should help results in future quarters, the company said....

Pop-under advertisements -- ads that appear in a separate window on a computer screen, then quickly move to the bottom of the screen -- are ineffective at luring buyers to the advertiser's site, Jupiter Media Metrix (Nasdaq: JMXI) said Thursday In fact, said Jupiter, advertisers that rely too heavily on the ads run therisk of turning off potential ...

This week's investment agreement between Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL) reportedly contains language that "leaves the door open" for a possible merger, a merger-and-acquisition attorney told the E-Commerce Times on Wednesday According to published reports, the agreement -- which calls for AOL toinvest $100 million in Amaz...

FTD.com (Nasdaq: EFTD), which sells flowers and gifts over the Internet and by telephone, said Tuesday that strong online sales led the company to its first full-year profit and are likely to contribute to solid growth in the year ahead Internet orders accounted for about 86 percent of the company's business in the latest quarter, up from 78 percen...

Audio content provider Audible.com said late Monday that it will cut 35 jobs -- about 40 percent of its workforce -- as part of a plan to become cash-flow positive by the end of next year The company also said Thomas Baxter plans to resign as chief executive officer while remaining a director and a senior adviser. Founder and chairman Donald Katz w...

With the idea of consumers actually buying cars from pure-play Internet companies all but dead, analysts say that real-world car dealers should be accelerating their use of online technology to get more shoppers into their showrooms Research studies and interviews, however, suggest that dealers have a long way to go....