Articles by Rob Conlin

America Online (NYSE: AOL) announced today that it has bulked up its already-popular personal finance channel by signing a five-year agreement with Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) to offer an online service for household billing Aimed at the small business and personal finance market, the service will be offered across multiple AOL brands by early next year,...

According to the November 22nd issue of PRWeek, U.S. presidential candidate Bill Bradley has combined e-commerce technology, an increasingly-popular message and the reach of the Internet to raise the most cyber dollars for the 2000 presidential campaign The same technology that has propelled e-commerce is also functioning as the method through whic...

Internet portal Lycos, Inc. announced today that it will spend $270 million (US$) in stock to acquire Boston, Massachusetts-based gaming site Gamesville.com Gamesville.com has increased traffic to its site by 300 percent in the last year, the companies said, and has approximately 2.2 million registered users. According to Media Metrix, the site has...

A group of lawyers is reportedly planning to file a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft in a California court today, potentially opening the floodgates to financial damages far costlier than any fine levied by the U.S. government According to reports, three experienced class-action lawyers intend to file the suit in California Superior Court in ...

In yet another indication that the B2B Internet industry is overtaking the retail e-commerce sector, leading Internet network CMGI (Nasdaq: CMGI) announced today that it is starting a B2B venture fund that is aiming to reach $1 billion (US$) in capital The Andover, Massachusetts-based company -- which is widely recognized as one of the premier Inte...

After being pushed to the legal brink by online search engine and marketplace GoTo.com, The Walt Disney Co. was granted an emergency stay on an injunction yesterday that would have forced the company to discontinue the use of its Go Network logo The stay, issued by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, came shortly after Infoseek shareholders voted t...

Internet portal Lycos, Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS) announced today that it has signed an agreement with Inflightonline.com to provide Internet services to airline passengers Inflightonline.com has been developing a system to offer complete Internet services to airline passengers with laptop computers for the last two years. Company president Dan Dailey tol...

PC manufacturer Compaq (NYSE: CPQ) and UK telecommunications company Cable & Wireless (NYSE: CWP) announced today that they will join forces in a five-year, $500 million (US$) agreement to provide Internet business services for small and medium-sized businesses The two companies said that they will sell Internet services and shared applications to ...

PC manufacturer Compaq (NYSE: CPQ) and UK telecommunications company Cable & Wireless (NYSE: CWP) announced today that they will join forces in a five-year, $500 million (US$) agreement to provide Internet business services for small and medium-sized businesses The two companies said that they will sell Internet services and shared applications to ...

North Carolina-based XS, Inc., the parent company of XSAg.com, announced today that it has secured $20 million (US$) in financing to develop an auction site that will help beleaguered American farmers buy agricultural goods at discount rates XS plans to use the funds to expand its marketplace and increase awareness among the 350,000 producers and A...

Internet postage provider Stamps.com (Nasdaq: STMP) announced today that it has created a new subsidiary that will offer encrypted printing of tickets, vouchers, certificates and other paper instruments for the events, travel and financial services industry The subsidiary will be called EncrypTix, the company said. It will utilize Stamps.com's exis...

For the second time in just over a month, online travel site Expedia.com, which is majority-owned by Microsoft, has been sued in a federal court The two companies were sued by Cahners Travel Group, a division of giant British/Dutch publishing company Reed Elsevier, for breach of contract, unfair competition and other allegations.

IBM's Global Services division announced yesterday that it is expanding the e-business innovation center it built in Atlanta, Georgia four years ago by building a network of facilities throughout the U.S. and Europe The $81 billion (US$) computer giant said it has opened centers in Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C. and has more planned for New Y...

Disney and its Go Network's plans to launch a publicly-traded division called go.com suffered a setback last week when a U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles issued a preliminary injunction that prevented the company from using its familiar Go logo The injunction stems from a lawsuit filed by marketplace search engine GoTo.com last February. Th...

Office supply superstore Staples, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLS) announced today that it has sold a five percent stake in its e-commerce unit and has appointed an advisory board to guide it toward its goal of $1 billion (US$) in online sales by the year 2003 The Framingham, Massachusetts-based superstore chain said that eBay President Meg Whitman, a current m...

Genealogy.com announced today that it will assist in providing an online resource to track the journeys of millions of immigrants who came to America at New York Harbor's Ellis Island The Fremont, California-based company signed a sponsorship agreement with The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. for the development of a Web site to com...

Leading online retailer Amazon.com(NYSE: AMZN) has taken a giant step away from its original incarnation as an online bookseller by announcing the launch of home improvement, software, video game and gift idea stores. Richard Chin, Amazon's director of product development, told the E-Commerce Times that the corporate plan has always been to offer a wide range of items, despite public perception to the contrary.

Amazon.com continued a frenetic week of activity today by announcing that it will create a co-branded credit card with Internet credit card issuer NextCard that could generate up to $150 million (US$) in fees for the online retail giant The five-year deal also provides Amazon with a warrant to acquire up to 4.4 million shares of NextCard, the creat...

Music giant Universal Music Group said today that it is forming a new record label that will "uniquely harness the strength and reach of the Internet," with America Online (NYSE: AOL) and others serving as key strategic partners The new label will be called Jimmy and Doug's Farm Club, and reflects the combined names of Jimmy Iovine, Co-Chairman of ...

E-tail success usually comes when a company outdoes its adversaries with a hard-hitting mix of product, price and ease-of-use It also comes when a company figures out a way to service an under-served market. That's why the good news for e-tailers everywhere is that there is an age group that has not been fully served on the Web.