Articles by

Ace Hardware Corp. and OurHouse.com have announced plans to pump more than $100 million (US$) into a new joint e-commerce venture The two companies will launch a new Web site in November that will provide expert advice on how-to make home improvements and offer a selection of more than 22,000 products such as upscale decorative lighting and bathroo...

IBM (NYSE:IBM) has entered into a new partnership with VerticalNet, Inc. (Nasdaq:VERT), an online business-to-business marketplace, that is designed to delivere-commerce solutions to IBM customers and enhanced technology to VerticalNet. The agreement calls for VerticalNet to promote IBM's products and services across the 51 industry-specific Web sites owned and operated by VerticalNet. IBM has also agreed to work with its customers to create e-commerce solutions using IBM's Net.commerce software and to integrate those solutions into VerticalNet communities, where they will be provided with VerticalNet storefronts.

Home furnishings Web site HomePoint.com announced today that it has joined the growing list of dot-com companies that have added the element of offline stores by establishing its HomePoint Advantage Network The system will link thousands of furniture stores to the Web company's extranet, an electronic system that facilitates the ordering and delive...

MacMillan Publishing USA has entered into a strategic alliance with SecurityPortal.com to bring online security technologies to users of the Linux operating system (OS) The new product, Maximum Security Linux, will be jointly-released to provide administrators who run Linux with security-related capabilities such as intrusion detection, system audi...

Global financial services firm Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. (NYSE: MWD) has announced the launch of ichoice, a new Web site that will combine the online trading service of its Discover Brokerage subsidiary with the online financial information pages operated by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter The site "enables individual investors to choose simply a...

Bolstered by a new deal with AOL (NYSE: AOL), online postage company Stamps.com (Nasdaq: STMP) announced today that it has launched its Internet Postage service, which allows customers to buy postage online and print it out on standard printers The service does not require any additional hardware for customers who already have a computer, printer a...

Operating on the assumption that all good domain names will soon be taken, Solutionhome.com, Inc. has opened a buying, selling and trading hub on the Internet to profit from individuals and companies who are willing to pay for a specific URL The company launched online auction houses for English and Spanish-language domain names, as well as a chat ...

A decision made earlier this week by the Miami, Florida county commissioners must have sent shock waves all the way to the Dulles, Virginia headquarters of America Online The Miami-Dade County commissioners voted against requiring cable companies that provide high-speed Internet connections to share their lines with competitors, causing some indust...

An Internet study of e-tail buying trends and customer satisfaction released yesterday by Deloitte & Touche shows that most online consumers are happy with their e-commerce experiences and are eager to use the Internet to purchase gifts during the holiday buying season According to the study, high satisfaction levels will contribute to the average ...

Internet powerhouse Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) filed a lawsuit yesterday against barnesandnoble.com, claiming that its 1-Click technology patent has been infringed upon The suit was filed in a federal court in Seattle, Washington. Amazon is seeking an immediate court-ordered halt to barnesandnoble.com's alleged copycat feature, which allows returnin...

In an effort to compete with top competitor Autobytel, online automobile resource Autoweb.com (Nasdaq: AWEB) has brought financial software company Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) and online business network Hoover's Online (Nasdaq: HOOV) into its stable of Internet allies Hoover's has signed up Autoweb.com as the exclusive sponsor of the auto information se...

Online toy seller eToys (Nasdaq: ETYS) announced today that it has reached an agreement with Discovery Toys, the direct seller of children's educational and developmental products, to be its exclusive online distributor The move extends eToys' reach into the children's product market at a time when the company is already experiencing its share of g...

Online postage provider Stamps.com(Nasdaq: STMP) and America Online (NYSE: AOL) announced a three-year, $56 million (US$) alliance today that will make the Santa Monica, California-based Stamps.com the exclusive provider of Internet postage across AOL's brands. The deal also calls for AOL to make a multi-million dollar investment in Stamps.com. The exact figure was not disclosed.

Office Depot, Inc.has entered into a strategic partnership with PurchasePro.com, a provider of business-to-business e-commerce solutions, that is aimed at helping small and medium-sized businesses initiate online commerce Under the terms of the agreement, PurchasePro.com will be Office Depot's recommended Web-based business-to-businesse-commerce so...

Personal-finance software company Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) announced today that it has joined forces with CyberBills to enable consumers to pay all of their bills online at Intuit's Quicken.com Intuit will weave CyberBills' Total Bill Management service into Quicken.com's online payment and presentment service, which is expected to launch this fall. T...

USAutoNews.com, an Internet portal for the automotive industry, launched an automotive directory and communications center yesterday that is intended to provide consumers with a single port of entry to automotive Web sites The new USAutoNews Search Center organizes auto industry Web site pages into searchable categories that address price, rentals,...

Power PC open-source software solutions provider LinuxPPC, Inc. has released an update to its version of the Netscape Web browser for Linux that focuses on security issues vital to conducting e-commerce transactions LinuxPPC has updated its Netscape Communicator 4.7 browser package with 128-bit encryption technology. Due to export restrictions, how...

Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) announced yesterday that it has created a $200 million (US$) investment fund to assist companies that develop next-generation Internet products, markets and services based on Sun's technology and platforms Sun will partner with venture capital firms and investment banks to identify companies for a minority position.

The United States Federal Trade Commission released a set of rules Wednesday to implement the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, a law passed last fall amid heightened concern that children are being lured into making online purchases or sharing personal information that could threaten their safety As of April 21, 2000, some commerci...

Asian Internet service provider and portal China.com (Nasdaq: CHINA) is eyeing the possibility of selling its Hong Kong unit in an effort to raise $1 billion (US$), according to reports published yesterday The flagship Chinese Internet firm -- which is owned by state-run Xinhua News Agency and boasts America Online, Sun Microsystems and others as e...