Business

Online industrial auction specialist DoveBid said Tuesday it has acquired the capital asset disposition firm TradeOut as part of an aggressive effort to expand DoveBid's business-to-business (B2B) offerings. The TradeOut purchase is DoveBid's 15th acquisition in the past two years. "Clearly, the...

Sixty-four percent of online advertisers will pay more money for placements they view as premium inventory, according to a study released Tuesday by Jupiter Media Metrix at its sixth annual Online Advertising Forum. The study found that 58 percent of media buyers were willing to pay more for prem...

eBay said Tuesday it has acquired HomesDirect, an online auctioneer of foreclosed properties. eBay, which did not disclose the purchase price, said the acquisition will "significantly expand" its real estate category. HomesDirect was responsible for the sales of more than 116,000 homes last...

Travel e-tailer Travelocity.com officially launched a speech-driven customer service application Monday that will allow customers to review existing travel plans over the phone, the company said. Forrester Research senior analyst Henry Harteveldt told the E-Commerce Times that this innovation i...

Internet trend-watcher Jupiter Media Metrix on Monday lowered its short-term outlook for the e-commerce sector, saying such factors as lack of capital and weak consumer spending are continuing to hurt the industry. At the same time, the report emphasized the long-term staying power of the Interne...

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced voluntary guidelines for advertisers using larger banner ads, pop-ups, and other forms of rich media advertising Monday. The IAB said the new guidelines would help marketers leverage the unique marketing characteristics of the Internet while keep...

Blaming a sagging market for online advertising, Theglobe.com, which staged one of the first blockbuster initial public offerings of the Internet era, said Friday it would shutter its main site, lay off half its workers and seek a buyer. The New York City-based company said it would close Theglo...

Although 38 percent of European businesses use the Internet to buy goods and services, another 36 percent expect to incorporate online purchasing in their operations beginning next year, according to data released Thursday by IDC. With growing numbers of European organizations making substantial ...

The U.S. government moved one step closer to a permanent ban on Internet access taxes and a five-year extension on the moratorium on multiple or discriminatory Internet taxes Thursday, when the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law passed the "Internet Tax Nondiscrimin...

The growing use of "pro forma" financial results -- that is, when companies report income or loss figures excluding a host of supposedly "one-time" charges -- is drawing attention from critics who say companies may be publishing pro forma earnings to make quarterly earnings reports look better th...

Computer reservations giant Sabre, parent of travel e-tailer Travelocity.com, said Thursday it would raise up to US$400 million worth of working capital, a possible sign the company is looking to fortify itself as the online travel war becomes more intense. Fort Worth, Texas-based Sabre said it ...

Cheap Tickets, which sells travel tickets through retail outlets, over the Internet and by phone, reported a profit Thursday for the tenth consecutive quarter, announcing diluted net income for the second quarter ended June 30th of 5 U.S. cents per share. However, the quarter did not provide a ...

Cost reductions and lower marketing spending helped luxury goods e-tailer Ashford.com narrow its loss for the first quarter ended June 30th, the company said Thursday. Sales were below year-earlier levels, however, as a promotional campaign and an inventory reduction lowered revenue. Repeat custo...

The use of peer-to-peer networking among Internet users -- for example, on controversial music file-swapping site Napster -- is changing the way people exchange information, and companies ignore the trend at their peril, according to a report released Thursday by IDC. Among companies, "the knee-j...

Analysts agree that Internet and technology investment is a virtual desert these days. According to figures released by Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association, capital investments fell in the second quarter, cutting overall spending by 61 percent in the past year. The quest...