E-Commerce

Shares of Georgia-based data-services provider ChoicePoint jumped by nearly half Thursday over their previous closing price after the firm announced that UK-based publisher and Lexis Nexis owner Reed Elsevier is buying it for $4.1 billion. ChoicePoint stock rose by 43.26 percent, to $48.22 by midday...

With rising interest around new mobile communications platforms, there are several early adopters that are successfully utilizing this medium to market and communicate with customers. However, there is still a large majority of marketers who want to first maximize their current e-mail efforts. Most...

A study by the Authentication and Online Trust Alliance shows that more than half of all e-mail is authenticated. However, the Alliance wants the industry to push for higher adoption. AOTA has issued a call to action to implement e-mail authentication at the top level corporate domain within the nex...

Confusion is swirling around Microsoft's bid for Yahoo. After having been twice rebuffed, Microsoft reportedly is planning to authorize a proxy fight this week. Meanwhile, institutional shareholders are about to lock horns over whether Microsoft should up its bid of $31 a share for Yahoo. Then there...

High-definition video enthusiasts are going to be looking at a Blu-ray world. That outlook was assured Tuesday when Toshiba officially backed away from the HD DVD format against Sony's heavily fortified Blu-ray technology. The Blu-ray format had gathered momentum in recent months, having won over a ...

It could only be a matter of time before someone found a formula for taking the immediacy of YouTube and the entrepreneurship of eBay and wrapping them around an original Internet mainstay -- the conversation of the Bulletin Board System. That time has arrived with the debut of BigThink.com. BigThin...

With significant recent defections threatening to make what was expected to be a close and ongoing battle for next-generation DVD supremacy a rout in favor of Sony's Blu-ray format, Toshiba is reportedly close to pulling the plug on HD DVD. Toshiba has already made the decision to stop pushing the H...

In a move that further crowds an already over-served market, four newspaper giants -- New York Times, Hearst, Gannett and Tribune -- have created a new online advertising partnership. Their new venture, QuadrantOne, will be headquartered in Chicago. Its interim CEO is Dana Hayes, Jr., who was named ...

In an 80-page document filed with the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday, cable carrier Comcast defended its practice of managing Web-based traffic over its network as legal and necessary. The Comcast document was filed a day after Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey, a Democrat who ...

eBay will be introducing its new fee schedule for sellers, along with some other administrative changes, on Feb. 18. Some sellers are so incensed over what they perceive as a raw deal, they're planning to boycott the iconic online auction site from Feb. 18 through 25. Sellers have banded together to...

I couldn't help but feel a bit of deja vu this morning as I entered the Desert Springs resort in Palm Desert, Calif., to attend eTail 2008. After all, I reported on the event last year in the same venue, and the hotel's atmosphere is as oasis-like as I remember it. This year's event is indeed simila...

The latest rumors buzzing around beleaguered Yahoo is that it is looking to restart merger talks with AOL, and might look at Google or Disney -- anyone but Microsoft. According to the Times of London, Yahoo and its team of advisers from investment banks Goldman Sachs and Lehman Bros. have been evalu...

Yahoo's board of directors has unanimously voted that Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid is "not in the best interests" of the Web portal, a widely expected move that could put pressure on Redmond to beef up its $44.6 billion offer. Yahoo's board met over the weekend to consider the $31 per share ...

Growing at more than 25 percent per year, e-commerce gives consumers a lot of what they want: broad assortment and convenient shopping any time from anywhere. To successfully compete with the bricks, all e-commerce has to do is stock the "long tail," ensure order accuracy, ensure nearly instant grat...

Amazon's new stock buyback program and its newly stated goals to retire outstanding debt appear to be a good fit for a company that seems to be in an aggressive mode, according to analysts. "It's certainly not going to put a huge dent in their cash coffers," said Michael Souers, a retail analyst wit...