Business

British telecommunications company Cable & Wireless Plc (C&W) (LSE:CW) announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire Internet content delivery and networking services provider Digital Island (Nasdaq: ISLD) for US$340 million in cash. C&W said that when the acquisition is complete, ...

MP3.com announced Thursday that it is offering a new service, called netCDs, that will allow customers to buy digital music CDs stored exclusively online for access or download from a Web-enabled device. "MP3.com has been one of the most aggressive companies about searching for new revenue streams...

E-commerce revenues in Singapore have more than doubled, growing from US$22.03 billion in 1999 to $51.1 billion in 2000, according to a report released Wednesday by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and Department of Statistics. "The Survey on E-Commerce 2000" found that 98.7 ...

Organizers of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games said Thursday they plan to sell up to US$1 million worth of premium tickets to their events on the Internet auction site eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY). The sale will begin with a batch of 100 tickets set to go on sale later this month. If those auctions are s...

Pointing to e-commerce as "critical" to the success of the U.S. economy, lawmakers introduced a resolution in both chambers of Congress Thursday calling on the Bush administration to make the growth of digital trade a top priority on its agenda. The bipartisan measure, sponsored in the Senate ...

Retailers are not prepared for an imminent onslaught in the number of online returns, according to a report released Thursday by Jupiter Media Metrix. Jupiter found that few retailers have systems that are equipped to help them understand why customers are returning products or how best to hand...

While product returns are set to cost Internet retailers an estimated US$3.2 billion in 2001, online merchants could "drastically" slash the figure by implementing automated Web-based return systems, according to a report released Wednesday by Gartner. The research group said e-tailers can save ...

Amazon.com chief executive officer Jeff Bezos has filed to sell 300,000 shares of Amazon stock -- under a recently enacted rule designed to allow executives to sell company stock at fixed intervals without violating insider-trading rules -- according to a regulatory filing made with the U.S. Secu...

A familiar brand name is the most important factor being considered by corporate buyers on the Internet -- even more important than price -- according to a study released Thursday by e-business consulting firm Accenture. The study found that 80 percent of corporate buyers believe that brand and c...

The Internet sector in four chief Asia-Pacific economies is undergoing a "major reformation," according to a report released Wednesday by the Yankee Group. In its latest regional review of the e-business market in India, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, Yankee found that a host of Asian regul...

Online brokerage E*Trade announced Tuesday it has launched E*Trade Israel, a Hebrew and English language Web site that will allow Israelis to trade online in the U.S. stock market. Menlo Park, California-based E*Trade said it believes that its entry into the Israeli online finance sector will "gr...

Apparently, it is an e-tailer's prerogative to change its mind -- or at least be flexible. Computer and electronics e-tailer Outpost.com said Tuesday that it will bring back free shipping on some items, a partial reversal of an earlier decision to abandon free delivery and the company's third shi...

In a bid to further expand its e-commerce offerings, the Netscape Netbusiness Marketplace announced Tuesday that it has struck a deal with Travelocity.com to sell airline tickets, hotel bookings and car rental reservations. The Netbusiness Marketplace, which is a joint venture by AOL Time Warner an...

While there might be more hand-wringing over dot-com layoffs than is truly warranted, e-commerce watchers have as much right to be concerned about recent job-cut trends as anyone in other segments of the high-tech sector. According to John Challenger, chief executive officer of job placement firm C...

The potential for price fixing in business-to-business (B2B) e-marketplaces was one of the many thorny issues addressed Monday and Tuesday in Washington D.C. at a seminar sponsored by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Lawyers, economists, researchers and business leaders attending the two...