Business

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has reached a settlement with Amazon.com on charges that the e-tail giant helped onetime partner Ashford.com dress up its financial results in 2000. The action resulted in a cease-and-desist order, requiring that Amazon refrain from similar tactics in t...

EarthLink has announced it will buy low-cost computer vendor PeoplePC for about $10 million, but the giant Internet service provider left open the possibility that the deal could swell to $14.3 million. PeoplePC has made a business out of selling inexpensive PCs bundled with Internet access. The ...

Novell has announced plans to acquire SilverStream Software in a $212 million cash deal designed to strengthen the networking software maker's position in the nascent Web services market. Analysts said the acquisition is a smart move. "Everybody is building their infrastructure to support service...

For all the talk about the World Wide Web, e-commerce is not so worldly after all. The Web may disregard international boundaries, but shoppers still must abide by the laws of their home country -- and then some. Cultural differences, language translation snafus, payment method restrictions, and ...

On Tuesday, HP executives reportedly told analysts that heavy losses in the company's e-business group had convinced it to retire its middleware offerings. Now, though, HP's resolve seems to be wavering, according to news sources. Yankee Group analyst Robert Perry told the E-Commerce Times that H...

Jupiter Media Metrix, which rode the dot-com wave to dizzying heights only to crash hard when the shakeout hit, has sold its core Web audience measurement service, Media Metrix, to comScore Networks for $1.5 million. The sale leaves Jupiter with only its trend analysis business. ComScore spokespe...

Intel wounded Wall Street's hopes for recovery by lowering its forecast after market close. The company said its second-quarter revenue should total $6.5 billion, rather than the $6.4 billion to $7 billion projected earlier this spring. In a conference call, Intel chief financial officer Andy Bry...

Mere days after announcing a $4.5 billion buyout effort, USA Interactive is backing away from the deal, citing sour market reaction. "It's interesting that [investors] would pan it," Morningstar.com analyst George Nichols told the E-Commerce Times. "Often, a move like this would help the stock be...

EBay and Amazon have community spirit by the truckload. And analysts and business leaders say it is no accident that the companies that make people feel like they belong at a Web site are among the most financially successful. McKinsey & Co. analyst Shona Brown told the E-Commerce Times that ...

EBay expects to rake in nearly $1 billion in revenue during 2002, CEO Meg Whitman said at the auction giant's shareholder meeting. But analysts have forecast even better numbers, predicting revenue of $1.11 billion for the year. Whitman also noted that several market opportunities still exist for...

Priceline.com has bought the domain name and trademark assets of onetime competitor Lowestfare.com, which stopped selling airline tickets a month ago. The deal is the latest in a string of partnership announcements and buyout attempts in the sector. Terms of the pact were not disclosed, although ...

Consumer protection advocate Ralph Nader has advised the U.S. government to consider curbing its technology spending with Microsoft in order to better control the software giant's "monopoly abuses." "The government is spending a lot of money trying to change the way Microsoft acts. Why wait a dec...

EBay has launched a new wireless service that will let auction aficionados bid in real-time when another user places a higher competing bid. The online auctioneer's 46 million users now can receive text message alerts on cell phones and other mobile devices that reflect the minimum bid at the tim...

Underscoring the fragility of the economic recovery in the tech sector, Internet companies slashed 2,078 jobs in May, three times as many as in April, according to a report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "We're probably going to continue to see consistent job cutting," C...

When AOL bought Time Warner at the start of 2001, the merged company's future looked bright. The air was still fresh inside the Internet bubble, the deal created a company worth a whopping $160 billion, and AOL chairman Steve Case boasted that the dynamic duo would build an unrivaled news and ent...