Articles by Paul A. Greenberg

With the dust barely settled after last week's U.S. House vote to extend permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to China, many Internet technology firms and electronic commerce companies are looking to the Far East to determine their fortunes Qualcomm, Inc., a company that had hoped to become a household word among the Chinese people, is instead s...

E*Trade and accounting giant Ernst & Young announced plans on Tuesday to make financial advice available to the brokerage firm's 2.6 million clients over the Internet Investors will be able to seek professional advice on a number of financial planning issues, such as financing a home, funding a child's education, saving for retirement, and planning...

Although Internet car sales are not yet breaking any speed barriers, the race between manufacturers and dealers for domination of the marketplace is definitely on Roger Penske, a major player in the Detroit auto industry, invested $17 million (US$) in CarsDirect.com last week, instantly creating an alliance between the Web site and 117 automobile d...

IBM announced the formation of an online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace Tuesday involving ten powerful telecommunications and electronics companies Big Blue is developing the new hub, named e2open.com, with some of the biggest names in technology, including Ericsson, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matshushita, Motorola, Nokia, Nortel Networks, Ph...

In an announcement Thursday that is sure to further unsettle agents and brokers who fear that their profession may soon be obsolete, Aetna, Inc., a $1 billion (US$) life insurance company that covers 10 million Americans, unveiled plans to sell group life insurance online The news came just one day after ING Group, the largest Dutch financial servi...

A U.S. Congressional hearing Thursday revealed that government officials are growing increasingly frustrated by jurisdictional problems in the battle against illegal drug sales online, and have made little concrete progress in the effort William Hubbard, a senior Food and Drug Administration (FDA) associate commissioner, said that criminal operatio...

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson dropped a bombshell in the ongoing Microsoft antitrust case Wednesday when he revealed that he is leaning toward splitting Microsoft Corp. into three parts, rather than the two proposed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) The three-way split had been suggested to the court in an amicus brief (fr...

In what could be the most aggressive move yet in the online travel war, Biztravel.com announced Tuesday that it will offer refunds to customers whose flights are late or cancelled Customers who buy their tickets from the site will be compensated for flights delayed or cancelled by American Airlines, Continental Airlines, US Airways, British Airways...

In a last ditch effort to win its antitrust battle with the U.S. government, Microsoft filed a legal brief on Monday citing an earlier case in which the government said it would be against the public interest to break up the company In the brief filed Monday morning, Microsoft refers to a 1995 case, stating "The government has already admitted that...

Despite months of negotiations, Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress remain split on a bill that would legalize digital signatures While lawmakers agree that passage of legislation approving digital signatures is critical to the future of electronic commerce, there is little agreement between political parties regarding the specifics of t...

Internet real estate company Homestore.com announced Friday that it has entered into an alliance with seven real estate industry players to streamline the process of purchasing a home online Homestore.com will team with GMAC Real Estate and GMAC Mortgage, WyldFyre Technologies, Fannie Mae, RE FormsNet, VeriSign, Prudential and RE/MAX to provide a n...

In a step that has sparked debate across all corners of the political landscape, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted Friday to ask Congress for the authority to impose stiffer regulations to protect consumer privacy online The FTC's latest attempt to involve government in online commerce stems partly from results of surveys conducted by t...

A new report by research firm Jupiter Communications (Nasdaq: JPTR) predicts that the total dollars (US$) spent by consumers for online and Web-influenced offline purchases will exceed $235 billion this year and top $831 billion in 2005 "Online consumers are a very powerful audience and tend to be channel agnostic," said Ken Cassar, a senior analys...

In a blistering 73-page response filed Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and 19 states staunchly rejected Microsoft Corporation's proposal for self-imposed remedies to keep its company intact The government told the court that Microsoft's suggested remedies would do nothing to prevent a recurrence of the illegal behavior that led U.S....

Online fashion retailer Boo.com, a splashy symbol of 1999's e-commerce explosion, announced Thursday that it will liquidate its assets after recent failed attempts to get more cash from its backers or find new investors or buyers The high-end clothing retailer, which recently described itself as "the first truly international e-commerce site," said...

A healthy economy and increasing consumer confidence in online shopping combined to push Mother's Day sales to $190 million (US$), according to BizRate.com, an online collective of Internet retailers This year's total is more than twice the $80 million that analysts had projected, and obliterates last year's mark of $14 million. Consumers placed 2....

Twelve major chemical companies announced Wednesday that they will form an international business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce marketplace The new online allies -- former rivals in the $1.6 trillion (US$) chemical business -- include four United States companies: Rohm and Haas Co.; Dow Chemicals Co.; DuPont Co.; and Van Waters & Rogers. Other parti...

Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch (TMCS) continued its aggressive move into electronic commerce Monday with the unveiling of a service that will allow users to purchase tickets using such mobile communication devices as telephones, personal digital assistants and pagers The new service, called "Local Intelligence," is set to go live May 19th in 32 U.S

America Online (AOL) has been slapped with a cease and desist order by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and has agreed to pay a civil penalty to settle charges in the amount of $3.5 million (US$) At issue were AOL's inaccurate financial reports from 1994, 1995 and 1996. The company reported profits instead of losses for six of eigh...

Although nearly 4 in 10 home buyers now use the Internet as a shopping research tool, few of them actually find the home they will eventually buy online, according to results of a new survey from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) The survey, "2000 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers," says that the number of home buyers who went online to s...