E-Commerce

By now Facebook must rue the day it went public -- or at least rue its initial offering price of $38 per share. On Thursday, the company's stock closed at $19.88, after hitting a low of $19.69. Early Friday, it hit a new low of $19.01 -- half its IPO value, plus a penny. By mid-day, it had recovered...

The fixes Sony made to its PlayStation Network last year after its system was hacked may not have made it impenetrable: Reports are circulating that the hacktivist group Anonymous has breached the network again. The rumors started with a tweet posted to the group's account that has since been taken ...

The Ministry of Commerce in China has approved Walmart's bid to buy a controlling stake of Chinese e-commerce company Yihaodian, part of Walmart's bid to increase its global retail presence. Prior to the approval, Walmart already possessed a 17.7 percent share in Yihaodian, one of the fastest-growin...

Wall Street has been in a foul mood over Internet stocks, and online professional recommendation company Angie's List has not escape the market's wrath. Its stock fell 15 percent on Tuesday -- a selloff that appears to be largely related to the end of a 90-day lockup period for shares issued in a se...

After posting revenue growth of 45 percent from a year prior, many companies would see an increase in stock price reflecting investor confidence. However, daily deal leader Groupon posted its first-ever quarterly profit as a public company and quickly saw its shares fall to new lows. This isn't norm...

Google has agreed to buy the Frommer's brand of travel publications. John Wiley & Sons, the publishing company that own the Frommer's travel brand, confirmed it will sell all of its travel assets to the Internet giant. The assets have been on sale since March, when the company announced it aimed...

When SAP's five founders launched the company in June 1972, it's unlikely they foresaw where the IT industry would travel in the decades to come. SAP's core business applications, including enterprise resource planning solutions, continue to support tens of thousands of companies globally -- but h...

Google is altering its algorithms to disfavor websites that are frequently accused of carrying content that violates copyright regulations. The search engine will include a new search signal in its rankings. Starting this week, its algorithms will include the number of copyright removal notices that...

Newly hired Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is reportedly considering a change in business strategy for the company, beginning with a restructuring plan that would use the revenue from Yahoo's Alibaba sale for long-term investment options rather than an immediate payback to shareholders. Yahoo announced in ...

New online book publisher StoryBundle is taking a leap of faith with its customer base: Readers get to decide how much to pay. StoryBundle, which launched this week, offers readers five e-books written by independent authors in one bundle. The bundles are grouped according to genre. First out of th...

Now that Software as a Service and the broader cloud computing concept have gained widespread recognition and acceptance, it will be interesting to see whether online marketplaces will become a preferred method for acquiring these on-demand resources. Given the proliferation of SaaS/cloud providers...

Facebook on Tuesday launched "Bingo & Slots Friendzy" -- a bingo game that uses real money -- exclusively for its members in the UK. As with all of its apps, Facebook is taking 30 percent of the revenue. Facebook has its fingers in numerous revenue-generating pies. To name a few examples, it is ...

On Friday Microsoft abruptly rebranded its Windows 8 interface, which has been known as "Metro" since it was introduced for Windows Phone 7. Instead of the simple "Metro," the tile-based interface will now -- and according to online reports, forever -- be known as "Windows 8 style UI." At the root o...

Last week, Google started selling a very high-speed Internet and television service in Kansas City. This service stands a good chance of blowing customers' minds and changing expectations. The question is, will Google get into this business and compete with cable television and phone companies? Or i...

Weeks after Marissa Mayer was hired as the new CEO of Yahoo, her predecessor has stepped down. No, not Scott Thompson. He left in May amid a resume scandal involving a false computer science degree. Yahoo's latest defector is Ross Levinsohn, the person who briefly held the position of interim CEO of...