E-Commerce

Google and Viacom have settled a long-running copyright suit, after a federal judge twice threw out the case. "Google and Viacom today jointly announced the resolution of the Viacom vs. YouTube copyright litigation," the companies said in a brief joint statement. "This settlement reflects the growin...

Alibaba, which controls 80 percent of the e-commerce in China, is going public -- but not in its native land. Alibaba Group on Sunday announced its decision to begin the process of an initial public offering in the United States, saying the move would make it a more global company and enhance its tr...

It appears Amazon is ready to take its brand of gaming to television screens, based on leaked photos of a game controller the company purportedly is working on. The images, which blogger Dave Zatz on Friday reported finding on the website of a Brazilian regulatory authority, show a controller with t...

New compliance guidelines went into effect earlier this year. While e-commerce organizations have until their 2015 audit to transition, the new controls are demanding enough operational and technical changes that smart businesses already have started preparing. If you're wondering where to get start...

Yahoo and Yelp on Wednesday announced a new partnership to display Yelp ratings with Yahoo's search results, a move designed to snag some market share from Yahoo's larger search competitors. Now, when someone uses Yahoo to search for a local business, that business' Yelp rating will pop up in the ri...

Amazon is hiking the price of the Amazon Prime subscription service for the first time since it launched nine years ago. Members will have to pay $99 for their subscription instead of $79. Amazon Student members will pay $49 for the service. Those who subscribe to Amazon Prime get unlimited two-day ...

Carl Icahn's latest move in a campaign to compel eBay to sell its PayPal division is to take on its CEO John Donahoe. The company on Monday rejected Icahn's nominees to the eBay board -- employees Daniel Ninivaggi and Jonathan Christodoro -- on the grounds that they were unqualified. The board urged...

Google has launched a referral program for its office apps. It will hand out $15 bonuses to Google Apps customers who convince new users to sign up for the service, which includes Gmail for businesses, Google Calendar, Docs, Slides, Hangouts and Google Drive. Google will award the $15 bonus for up t...

Too many e-commerce companies treat shipping as a commodity. The ones that don't, win. Amazon and Zappos are prime examples of companies that care about fast fulfillment, and they have millions of loyal customers because of it. The good news is that you don't have to offer free next-day shipping t...

The drama surrounding Mt. Gox, once the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, has intensified. The company on Sunday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States -- less than two weeks after taking a similar action in Tokyo, where it's headquartered. It apparently made this move to freeze a laws...

Getty Images, the stock photo giant that many professional photographers loathe but amateurs love, on Thursday announced it will allow consumers to embed and share its images free for non-commercial purposes on blogs, social networks and other websites. The move indicates the company, whose batter...

Kickstarter announced it hit a new milestone Monday: It has surpassed $1 billion in pledges to crowdfund projects worldwide. In total, 5.7 million people have chipped in to fund Kickstarter campaigns, with about 1.6 million people backing more than one project. The pledges have come from 224 countri...

Zynga COO Clive Downie on Monday announced the early rollout three mobile-first games: FarmVille 2: Country Escape, New Zynga Poker and New Words With Friends. The soft launch is taking place in certain markets before the games' formal debut in June. The release as a key part of a larger strategy to...

CEO Satya Nadella has begun his much-anticipated shakeup of Microsoft's leadership ranks, just weeks after taking the helm. Tony Bates, EVP of business development and evangelism, and Tami Reller, EVP of marketing, are on the way out. Eric Rudder, EVP of advanced strategy, will take over Bates' duti...

Several members of Hollywood's elite walked out of the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles clutching golden statues on Sunday, but it might have been Samsung that landed the largest victory at the event. Partway through the show, host Ellen DeGeneres stopped to capture the moment by using a Samsung phone t...