Articles by Paul A. Greenberg

With the holiday season dust long settled and several prominent e-tailers fighting for survival, this year's Mother's Day may well prove to be a turning point for e-commerce BizRate.com projects that Sunday's event, the second busiest e-tail cycle of the year, could see a five-fold increase in sales over last year's tally of 250,000 and generate up...

Global steel trade leaders Cargill Steel, Duferco, Samsung Corporation and TradeARBED announced plans Wednesday to create an independent global exchange for trading steel on the Internet The virtual market will offer online buying and selling of steel, as well as provide financing, risk management and logistics services to the industry. Set for a f...

Just weeks after being found liable for copyright infringement, MP3.com (Nasdaq: MPPP) announced Wednesday that it is voluntarily removing "Big Five" record company content from its My.MP3.com database Users will be unable to access music from Arista Records, Inc., Atlantic Recordings Corp., Capitol Records, Inc., Sony Music Entertainment, Inc., an...

A new survey from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) shows that total Web advertising spending by its member companies has nearly tripled The ANA -- a trade association whose 292-company membership includes such heavy hitters as American Express, BMG Entertainment, IBM, Intuit, Nortel, Sony, Sprint and Symantec -- released results of its...

As estimates of the damage caused by the "Love Bug" virus hover around $10 billion (US$), the U.S. Congress has launched a probe into the causes, effects, and prevention of such attacks "What we'd like to discover is to find out how this virus spread so quickly and what can be done to keep viruses like the Love Bug from striking again," said Jeff L...

Microsoft Corporation is expected to propose restrictions on its own business practices when it responds Wednesday to the U.S. federal court antitrust ruling against the company and a proposal that the company be split into two firms In its response, Microsoft will request extensive hearings to examine the government's proposal, which was followed ...

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Thursday cleared the way for a full House of Representatives vote next week to extend the ban on Internet taxes through October 2006. By a 29-8 margin, the committee approved legislation to extend the existing moratorium on new Internet taxes that had been due to expire in October of 2001 "Today's committee vot...

According to one security expert, the damage wrought by the so-called "I Love You" virus has already totaled nearly $100 million (US$) worldwide, and clones could push the figure over $1 billion by Monday morning "We predict at least a dozen copycats within the next 24 hours," ICSA.net security expert Peter Tibbett said Friday morning. "There'll be...

With concern over deceptive online advertising threatening to erode consumer confidence in e-commerce, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a report Wednesday saying that existing trade regulations and laws apply to Internet advertising just as they apply to ads in traditional media The report, titled "Dot Com Disclosures: Information abo...

The battle over music copyright infringement on the Internet took a dramatic turn Wednesday, when Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich personally presented Napster with the names of approximately 300,000 users who have allegedly been trading the band's songs online without permission Through its attorney, Metallica demanded that Napster refuse service to ...

With an eye toward generating $1 billion (US$) in hardware, software and services revenue over the next three years, IBM announced Tuesday that it has formed new alliances in the Internet banking, retail and insurance sectors The pacts were formed as part of a diversification strategy that also brought deals in recent months with Siebel Systems, In...

Responding swiftly to news that Hewlett-Packard Co., Compaq Computer Corp. and Gateway, Inc. are launching an online marketplace for supply chain management, IBM disclosed Monday that it is developing a similar Internet marketplace for purchasing and inventory control Working with at least nine other electronics industry heavyweights, IBM's new mar...

Compaq Computer Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Gateway, Inc. announced plans Monday to form an alliance with nine computer parts suppliers to create an online marketplace that could cut their annual supply costs by five to seven percent Due to increasing consumer demand, the new venture has the potential to become the largest online marketplace est...

Measures to protect consumer privacy online are not keeping up with technological advancements, President Clinton said Sunday in a commencement address at Eastern Michigan University Clinton said consumer privacy is being compromised because technology makes it too easy for personal information to be collected and disseminated.

Six major airline companies announced plans Thursday to form an Internet marketplace to handle transactions estimated at $32 billion (US$) per year in goods and services The founding airlines -- American, Continental, Delta, United, British Airways and Air France -- will invest a total of $50 million to start the venture, which will facilitate the ...

This week, the government of Mexico officially acknowledged the viability of e-commerce in the country by passing legislation that recognizes Internet purchase orders as binding contracts Previously, all contractual agreements in Mexico required a physical signature. The new reforms to Mexico's civil and commercial codes validate "electronic signat...

Tuesday's announcement that UPS will offer a new online electronic bill presentment and payment service for business-to-business (B2B) transactions marked yet another milestone in the company's drive to become an e-commerce monolith Through an alliance with Internet payment companies Bottomline Technologies and Princeton eCom, UPS Capital, the comp...

Contrary to widespread rumors that the U.S. Department of Justice and the 19 states suing Microsoft Corp. would seek separate remedies in the antitrust case, all parties concerned are expected to proceed Friday by filing a joint proposal The proposal will reportedly call for Microsoft to be split into two separate companies. Even at the eleventh ho...

Online toy retailer eToys, Inc. announced Thursday that net sales for its fiscal year ended March 31st reached $151 million (US$), five times higher than earnings of $30 million one year earlier. However, the company also reported a loss of $148.1 million for the fiscal year, or $1.29 per share, compared with a loss of $22.4 million and 27 cents per share a year ago...

This week, online pharmacy Drugstore.com outdid expectations by reporting a $38.9 million (US$) loss for the quarter ended April 2nd Analysts surveyed by First Call Corp., a firm that tracks quarterly earnings of online companies, had projected a loss of $1.02 per share for the quarter, but the results were lighter, with a loss of 86 cents per shar...