Business

In an effort to help local car dealers keep pace with the increasing number of online auto sellers, the National Automobile Dealers Association on Monday launched DriversSeat.com, an Internet portal that links consumers directly to dealer Web sites.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) announced Monday that it has reached settlements totaling $2.4 million (US$) in fines from 20 companies found guilty of software piracy.

Beating such rivals as Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com to the market, German media giant Bertelsmann AG announced Tuesday the opening of an online bookstore in Japan, the fourteenth opening for BOL.com, Bertelsmann's Internet unit.

Dell Computer Corp. unveiled on Tuesday a wide range of new online services geared toward small and mid-sized businesses, including Dell-branded Internet access, e-mail and purchasing services.

Small business seems to have a split personality when it comes to the Internet. Although nearly three quarters of U.S. small businesses have found it prudent to set up Web sites, most of them are strangely noncommittal. It is as though they neither want to miss the party nor have too much fun and en...

According to data from IT research firm IDC, U.S. sales of pharmaceutical, health, and beauty products over the Internet will boom from less than $250 million (US$) in 1999 to more than $18 billion in 2004.

The Internet's impact on the U.S. business-to-business (B2B) marketplace will trigger more than $6 trillion (US$) in trade by 2005, according to a new report by Jupiter Communications.

Further shrinking what is already a highly competitive e-commerce sector, online grocer Webvan Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: WBVN) announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire rival HomeGrocer.com for $1.2 billion (US$) in stock.

A survey released Monday by investment firm Scudder Kemper Investments shows that despite slumping share prices, a majority of Americans remain optimistic about investing in e-commerce companies and see these firms as the linchpins of the future American economy.

U.S. federal regulators have expanded their probe of America Online's planned $124 billion (US$) acquisition of Time Warner, Inc., according to published reports.

By definition, couch potatoes dislike getting active, and they may be even less inclined to get interactive.

Liberty Media Group (NYSE: LMGA), the cable television arm of AT&T, announced Monday that it will combine broadband assets with UnitedGlobalCom, Inc. (Nasdaq: UCOMA) to create the world's largest cable television company outside the United States.

Clearing the way for a mega-merger that could radically change the high-tech landscape, stockholders of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) and America Online (NYSE: AOL) voted overwhelmingly in favor of the pending deal Friday at separate shareholder meetings.

The White House has commissioned a new portal, Firstgov.gov, to expedite information delivery to citizens from U.S. government agencies and services that are presently spread across more than 20,000 separate Web sites.

By launching seven new voice technology products, IBM (NYSE: IBM) declared its commitment Thursday to developing voice technology as a key channel for mobile Internet applications.