Business

You've devised a brilliant opt-in marketing campaign, complete with an educational newsletter that's all the rage. Your sales are spiking and your list is growing. Then it happens -- some spammer uses phraseology that is similar to your corporate name or some malicious code writer launches a virus w...

Recently, we came out of the age of curiosity, entered the age of scarcity and are now sinking in the age of abundance. Everything is here. Today, all over the world, millions of identical companies are producing millions of identical products and services, and they are pushing identical prices on i...

The online financial services world finds itself back in the mergers-and-acquisition spotlight today as Ameritrade and TD Waterhouse have confirmed reports that they are talking about merging their online brokerages. Ameritrade Holding confirmed that talks were under way with Toronto Dominion Bank, ...

Cingular Wireless has launched a business-focused always-on e-mail service that will compete alongside the popular BlackBerry standard from Research In Motion and could portend additional offerings from carriers eager to lock in corporate users. Cingular, the largest mobile carrier in the U.S., said...

It might be a fad. It may be a trend or something even more permanent. Nonetheless, it's obvious that at least for now, blogging has arrived as a force on the Internet, not only for political discourse and personal ramblings but increasingly as a potentially powerful business tool. Any doubt that bl...

Polite behavior goes a long way in influencing what people think of us. Certainly, there are businesspeople who are rude and obnoxious and yet are still successful. However, the vast majority of humanity would rather be associated with a person who is polite and considerate. Whether we like to admit...

Worldwide mobile phone sales rocketed to record levels in the first quarter, defying predictions of a slowdown in growth for 2005. Research firm Gartner said sales rose 17 percent over the same time period last year to 180.6 million units. The first quarter of 2004 had seen the previous high water m...

Private messages exchanged using corporate BlackBerry wireless devices might not be quite so private after all as evidenced by a recent lawsuit filed in Toronto, Canada, by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). The lack of security through the use of such devices, which are increasingly uti...

In a bid to raise awareness of its free software service for enabling voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calling, Skype is hoping that a tried-and-true approach for online advertising and sales will bear fruit in its battle for market share. Skype, which recently announced that it had surpassed 100...

Consumer and business demand for wireless networks will drive strong growth in the wireless local area network (WLAN) semiconductor segment for the next four years, according to a new report from research firm IDC. In addition to demand for existing technologies, IDC said it sees new technologies in...

European Union regulators say they want an agreement in place by the end of the month on how Microsoft will comply with the sanctions imposed on the software giant last year, raising the possibility of additional monetary penalties if no deal can be reached. European Competition Commission member Ne...

In a move that could at once spur the emergence of a fast-rising technology and possibly give an upper hand to traditional telecommunications companies, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted today to require most providers of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service to offer enhanced ...

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down some states' regulations limiting out-of-state shipments of wine. The ruling could help spur some e-commerce sales of wine, at least among individual vineyards. However, such sales are a small fraction of the overall market for wine, by most acco...

Pushing the boundaries of Internet video, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), has announced plans to test a program that would make full-length versions of its television shows available for download. The TV programs, which would be available free of charge, would be protected with digital right...

Hoping to spur wider use of mobile data services, especially among its key business customers, Verizon has rolled out support for a new high-end smartphone model and lowered the fees it charges enterprises to use hand-held devices to retrieve e-mail and perform other remote tasks. Verizon said it wo...