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Qwest Communications has agreed to sell its ASP (application service provider) assets to Corio, Inc. for US$15 million in a deal that should be completed in late September. Under terms of the agreement with Qwest, Corio picks up the ASP operations of thetelecommunications company's Qwest CyberSolutions subsidiary The acquisition is expected to boos...

In a strong move to execute its new storage software strategy for Linux, Veritas Software has purchased US$1 million worth of patents from Storage Engine Earlier this week, Veritas outlined the next phase in its strategy to lead the Linux storage market, including the release of new products and partnerships with industry leaders....

Onetime e-commerce software powerhouse PurchasePro has found itself caught up in dual probes into the accounting practices at AOL, as deals made at the height of the dot-com boom are examined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). PurchasePro, which, like many other e-commerce software firms, has fallen on hard times, confirmed that docu...

In its infancy, e-commerce was all about building a Web site, attracting "eyeballs" and capturing orders. Mega corporations and upstarts alike rushed to the Web like pioneers digging for gold. They raced to build user interfaces and electronic shopping carts that mimicked the brick-and-mortar experience. But within a few years, like most infants, ...

EBay is reportedly close to a deal to sell its Butterfields division, probably for considerably less than the US$260 million price tag that the auction house carried in early 1999, when eBay set out to leverage its real-world assets EBay will apparently sell Butterfields, founded in 1865 as Butterfield and Butterfield, to Bonhams, a London-based au...

In an attempt to beef up its online music service, Pressplay has unveiled version 2.0, which, according to the company, will give users greater freedom in listening to, downloading and storing music The newly modified service now will let listeners stream audio, and gives them the opportunity to copy a larger number of songs. The company said that ...

A year ago this month, Webvan called it quits. If it seems like the shutdown happened earlier than that, it might be because the company was on the way out for months before its final exit. Or it might be that, in the big picture, Webvan just didn't matter that much There are constant reminders of its presence, of course. The ironically labeled int...

As e-commerce server providers go head-to-head, touting their wares as the latest and greatest, meaningful hardware comparisons sometimes get lost in the shuffle But what makes the ultimate e-commerce server? The answer to that question must be based on the particular e-commerce venture and its online strategy. At the low end, single-processor syst...

The war of words over travel site Orbitz has reached the White House. Several Orbitz competitors, including Travelocity parent Sabre Holdings and Expedia.com, sent representatives to a White House meeting Tuesday, at which they made their case for stepping up reviews -- already under way by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Department ...

Amid growing problems behind the scenes, America Online is releasing the first major beta version of AOL 8.0. The full version is expected to launch this fall and will serve as the centerpiece of a brand-new user experience, according to company executives. Added features and enhancements focus on ease of use, communications, community, online saf...

In a deal that might ultimately shift the balance of power among computer vendors, IBM will pay US$3.5 billion in cash and stock for PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting. Pascal Matzke, a senior analyst at Giga Information Group, told the E-Commerce Times that the acquisition is "actually a good match" that will give IBM a strong position in high-en...

For the quarter ending August 2nd, Dell expects its revenue to reach US$8.3 billion, up about 9 percent from last year's second quarter, while earnings are expected to increase by 19 percent Analysts agree that Dell's build-to-order model for selling PCs and servers not only works well for current market conditions but also is likely to keep rivals...

Venture funding dropped 11 percent last quarter to US$5.7 billion, a level not seen since late 1998, as venture capitalists continued to nurse their wounds and stayed on the sidelines in large numbers, according to a new survey A total of 819 companies received funding, slightly down from the 826 funded in the first quarter, according to the survey...

Maybe it's only a coincidence, but not long after televisions flashed images of Adelphia Communications executives being taken away in handcuffs, the stock market began its most impressive single-day rally in recent memory If it's not coincidental, though, the fact that fraud charges against a minor cable company could have such an impact should gi...

Microsoft has generated so much hype about .NET that many are wondering whether the software giant's technology for connecting information, people, systems and devices can live up to its billing. .NET uses XML (extensible markup language) Web services as building-block applications that connect to one another via the Internet. But customers have g...

The worldwide server market continues to struggle through the economic doldrums, according to Garter Dataquest, gaining a mere 0.5 percent in the second quarter. Worldwide server shipments totaled 1.08 million Analysts said uncertain market conditions are preventing companies from purchasing high-end servers, changing to new platforms and singing b...

Heavy promotions and midsummer sales are driving Web surfers to the sites of brick-and-mortar retail chains during a traditionally slow shopping season, according to a new report from Nielsen//NetRatings. For example, the research firm said, traffic to OfficeDepot.com more than doubled during the week ended July 21st compared with a week earlier.

Legal professionals face an uphill battle in dealing with thorny new issues raised by the globalization and growth of e-commerce -- from taxes and intellectual property disputes to privacy and cybercrime According to Thomas Smedinghoff, a partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie, the ever-changing e-commerce landscape can prove vexing, not only to atto...

Japanese Internet venture investor Softbank has sold its remaining stake in E*Trade, taking a loss as part of an effort to realign its holdings and reduce its exposure to the dot-com world. Softbank said it sold a total of 12 million shares of E*Trade stock for US$3.60 each, raising $43 million in the process as it seeks to shore up its own financ...

Cisco Systems announced Thursday a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Ayr Networks in a stock deal worth as much as US$113 million Under terms of the deal, the networking granddaddy will purchase outstanding shares and options of Ayr Networks, which develops high-performance distributed networking services and scalable routing software ...