Business

Some ethnic minorities are gaining ground in terms of online presence in the United States, though they still comprise just a fraction of overall Web traffic, according to a new study from Nielsen//NetRatings. Analysts noted that these new Web users could help the e-commerce industry keep growing...

Now that the dot-com bubble has burst, sparking a recession that has spread through the U.S. economy, the boom era is facing its share of harsh criticism. But for all the failures that dot-coms brought to the business world, they also were responsible for some truly astounding technological innov...

Robertson Stephens, an investment bank that helped take Webvan, eToys, Palm, eMachines, Buy.com and a score of other Internet and tech companies public in the dot-com heyday, will be closed after attempts to find a buyer failed, according to parent company FleetBoston Financial. "It was a difficu...

In this economy, eBay's bid to pay $1.5 billion for PayPal might seem excessive, even for the likes of the auction giant. And while many analysts believe eBay will get its money's worth, others are not convinced. AMR Research analyst Louis Columbus told the E-Commerce Times that he believes eBay ...

Expedia has rejected a takeover bid from USA Interactive, the online travel service's largest shareholder. The snub was not entirely unexpected. Many company officials and shareholders had denounced USA Interactive's intentions to buy the remaining 37 percent of Expedia. USA Interactive head Barr...

Two PayPal shareholders have filed separate lawsuits related to eBay's acquisition of PayPal. The plaintiffs in both suits seek an injunction against the consummation of the deal, noting that the price eBay is paying for PayPal is unfair and inadequate. But Frost & Sullivan research analyst S...

In the not-too-distant future, e-commerce technology not only will become smarter and faster, but could completely transform the way companies deal with internal information, customer service and the sales process. This change will occur as new features bring together several separate technologie...

A Canadian government agency has cleared Amazon.com to sell books through its newly launched Canadian Web site, saying the e-tailer is not subject to a law that regulates foreign investment in booksellers. But rival booksellers, including Canadian online competitor Indigo Books and Music and the ...

Yahoo! has reported second-quarter earnings of $225.8 million and net income of $21.4 million, outdoing year-ago figures, while online advertising revenue still accounted for the bulk of the company's income. Giga Information Group analyst Andrew Bartels told the E-Commerce Times that a reboundin...

Ask Jeeves has joined forces with 24/7 Real Media's search engine marketing division to launch a paid inclusion service called Index Express. The service will match search queries from users "to the highly relevant deep content on an advertiser's Web site," according to Doug Wagner, president of ...

Travel company Expedia has announced it will buy a privately held business travel agency and will use the acquisition as the core of an effort to enter the corporate travel market. Expedia did not disclose terms of its purchase of Metropolitan Travel, but it noted that the 20-year-old firm did $15...

When VeriSign launched in 1995, it touted itself as being the "only company focused 100 percent on digital authentication products and services." But since 2000, the company has ventured into several new markets. Recent earnings reports seem to indicate that VeriSign could be spread too thin, but...

On the heels of eBay's $1.5 billion PayPal acquisition, Microsoft is making its own play to compete in the online payment space. The software giant has announced a partnership that will allow banks to authenticate Visa and MasterCard credit cards with a shopper's Microsoft Passport username and p...

Multichannel retailing is on the rise in the U.S. and Europe, according to a new study published by Gartner. Of the 375 companies surveyed between September and December of last year, roughly 75 percent said that they currently have a multichannel retailing strategy (MRS) or are planning to imple...

Hewlett-Packard has officially launched a portfolio of Intel Itanium 2-based systems, products and services. The worldwide rollout comes after nearly seven years of collaboration among HP, Intel and Microsoft. However, Forrester analyst Carl Howe told the E-Commerce Times, "The problem is that no...