Business

There's a case brewing in Louisiana that may blow the lid off virtual casinos everywhere. A U.S. appeals court faces the question of whether a trial court in Louisiana was correct when it ruled in February that the 1961 Wire Act does not apply to all forms of Internet gambling, but only sports wage...

Mirroring a move made by Amazon.com two weeks ago, Barnesandnoble.com announced Monday that it will offer free shipping for consumers purchasing two or more items. In a jab at Amazon, which raised the prices on some items when it offered to pick up the shipping tab for customers, Barnesandnoble.c

Hoping to head off the sharing of movies on the Internet before it reaches Napster-like proportions, seven major film studios have filed a lawsuit in California against Johnny Deep and several business partners backing the Internet file-swapping network Aimster. Emily Kuttner, spokesperson for t...

Today's e-commerce industry could not have been built without the interconnecting threads of partnerships, affiliate programs, marketing deals and other alliances. But the Web remains vulnerable in spots. eBay partnered with Eppraisals.com, only to see that site go under two months later. Investm...

Any continued weakness in the European economy could have a major impact on the demand for information technology (IT) products and services over the next three years, according to a report released Monday by IDC. The Framingham, Massachusetts-based research firm said that with indicators pointin...

Monster.com parent TMP Worldwide said Friday it will acquire competitor HotJobs in a US$460 million deal that brings the top two Internet job search sites under the same roof. The deal, which has already been endorsed by both boards of directors, is expected to close sometime in the fourth quart...

London-based online travel company Ebookers said Monday it has moved some operations to India, and also opened a customer service call center there, as part of a plan to cut costs and break even by the first quarter of 2002. Ebookers said it will outsource some functions to a call-center company ...

For those of you who think that there has been nothing funny about the struggles in the dot-com world this year, the E-Commerce Times begs to differ. As we reach the halfway point in a year where nothing has been certain in e-commerce except uncertainty, indulge yourself with a selection of profo...

Shareholders at the annual meeting for urban delivery e-tailer Webvan approved a reverse stock split Friday in an attempt to get company shares over the US$1 minimum required by the Nasdaq. Webvan said it received a letter from the Nasdaq Listing Panel requiring that Webvan implement the approv...

Although many businesses have been curbing new technology purchases, the growing demand among consumers for Internet-based support options will help propel a strong spending cycle in the market for such services, according to a report released Friday by Gartner Dataquest. The report found that o...

The war to win the clicks of online travel shoppers continues to sizzle, with two major airlines touting their ability Friday to use the Internet to reach customers directly. Northwest Airlines said it would give customers the ability to change their own flights through its Web site or through ai...

Yahoo! continued its ongoing transformation into a full-fledged media company with the announcement Thursday that it is acquiring online music provider Launch Media for approximately US$12 million. Webnoize director of research Lee Black told the E-Commerce Times that the deal will likely benefi...

Pitney Bowes and former online postage provider E-Stamp announced Thursday that they have settled all pending litigation between the two companies. E-Stamp said the litigation, including claims by Pitney Bowes that E-Stamp infringed on seven of its patents, as well as antitrust counterclaims by E...

On January 3rd, when the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its targets for key interest rates for the first time this year, analysts said companies would begin to see the results of lower borrowing costs in about six months, as the lower rates would spur corporate spending. Technology was supposed to be a...

Online auction sites racked up record revenues of US$556 million in May -- a 149 percent spike from their $223 million in sales in May 2000 -- according to a report released Thursday by Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive. The report found that more than 6.2 million consumers conducted onl...