E-Commerce

Pandora launched its initial public offering Tuesday evening, opening at $16 per share. On Wednesday morning, the Internet radio's stock price opened at $20, then rose to $26, placing the company's value at $4.2 billion. Later on Wednesday, the price fell to $18.30. Despite Pandora's lack of profita...

A new partnership between Comcast and Skype will let Comcast subscribers place video calls through their television sets. The new service will require some setup -- customers will need to install Comcast-provided equipment including an adapter box, video camera, and special remote with a QWERTY keyb...

When a good name identity is super-glazed with a good trademark protection plan, there is no reason why it would be hurt by ICANN's gTLD. Executives at companies with great names like "Google," "Sony," "Panasonic," "Rolex," "Microsoft" or "CNN" are not losing sleep over gTLD, but those at some oth...

Protecting sensitive information in the electronic age is a critical matter -- but the question of what the term "critical" really means has become a vexing problem for lawmakers dealing with cybersecurity issues. Equally challenging is defining the role that government should play in protecting all...

Google announced Monday it's moved to buy online advertising company Admeld, another purchase in what appears to be the search engine giant's move toward the display ad market. Neither company disclosed the cost of the purchase, but reports suggest Google paid about $400 million to acquire Admeld. W...

Somewhere in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., I just know the owner of a certain day spa is rubbing her hands with glee. You see, on New Year's Day morning, as I was blearily checking my emails, I clicked on one of the many group buying sites to which I subscribe and saw an offer I simply couldn't p...

Pandora, an Internet music service, is scheduled to begin trading shares in an initial public offering on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "P." Last week, the company ramped up its plans, increasing its IPO price range by at least a third and boosting the number of shares to...

Both Houses of the Texas legislature have passed a bill that legislatively repeals a controversial regulation that has caused a great deal of concern to e-commerce vendors and to Web hosting companies. A state can only require a company to collect its sales tax if the company has a substantial physi...

Many firms are not properly prepared for the response to a daily deal offering. "These offers can be wonderful if they are analyzed correctly by the company," said Greg Sterling, principal of Sterling Market Intelligence. "If they are not, then it can easily be a disaster." The daily deal sites are ...

Spending on online advertising is expected to jump 20.2 percent over last year's spending, according to new figures from eMarketer. If this category of ad spend does indeed reach $31.3 billion, as the company has projected, it will return to pre-recession growth levels and be accompanied by steady i...

On a single day in March earlier this year, The Orange County Register's website generated $188,000, mainly by selling nearly 5,457 customers on its daily deal: a Catalina Flyer catamaran round-trip ticket for $34. A portion of the revenue was generated by a side deal. For an industry poised to reac...

Since few people bother to read Privacy Policies, Terms of Service or Click Wrap Agreements, is it any wonder that social media sites, search engines, and providers of cell services ask for and receive carte blanche rights to our whereabouts, along with other personal information? We all know that i...

Once upon a time there was an online group called "The Point." It was a nebulous organization with the vague goal of using the power of social media to to do such things as crowdsource a design for the Chicago Stadium or launch a petition. One day, one of its members got the bright idea to use its n...

Pop star Lady Gaga is reportedly joining with Google's Eric Schmidt to produce a new social media site called "Backplane." Tony Carter, Gaga's manager, is at the helm of the operation and is attracting capital from important backers. So far, the company has raised more than $1 million from a group o...

Popular online coupon marketer Groupon filed for an initial public offering with the SEC on Thursday, meaning the public will soon have the chance to buy into one the world's fastest-growing companies. Groupon hopes to raise $750 million in the deal, which will be underwritten by a group of investor...