E-Commerce

The record label home to some of the world's top pop groups, such as the Beatles and Coldplay, has agreed in principle to a $4.7 billion takeover by private equity group Terra Firma Capital Partners. EMI Group spurned a proposal from Warner Music Group earlier this year, but now considers Terra's o...

Google shook up the e-payment market last summer with a ballyhooed entry into this space with its Google Checkout service. While many positioned the move as a salvo against eBay and its PayPal subsidiary, traditional banks may have more to lose if Google is successful as the Internet increasingly re...

When online advertisers use pay-per-click advertising, as much as 15 percent of the clicks they pay for could be fraudulent, according to the results of a new study announced Friday. Under a pay-per-click agreement, an online advertiser must pay for every time a potential customer clicks on its ad.

The board of directors for radio and billboard giant Clear Channel Communications unanimously approved a slightly sweetened $19.5 billion buyout offer from private equity groups whose prior attempts it recently rejected. Asked by some major shareholders to rethink that rejection, the board announced...

Microsoft announced on Friday it will acquire Web ad firm aQuantive in a deal valued at $6 billion, marking the latest and largest deal in a merger-and-acquisition frenzy aimed at staking a claim in the converging worlds of traditional and online advertising. Microsoft agreed to pay $66.50 per share...

The great Internet TV race is on, and the field is crowded -- and getting more crowded all the time. The biggest names in U.S. TV broadcasting want to make sure they stay in the middle of things. Cable TV broadcasters such as Cablevision, Comcast and Time Warner got an early jump on their broadcast ...

Interactive marketing firm 24/7 Real Media has agreed to be acquired by UK-based advertising giant WPP Group, continuing the trend of consolidation in the online advertising space. London-based WPP will pay $11.75 per share for 24/7, WPP said, giving the all-cash deal a value of $649 million. New Yo...

Nearly a century has passed since the first commercial radio broadcast went out over the airwaves. Aside from the invention of frequency modulation in the early 1930s and advances in recording and music playback devices, radio technology had remained much the same -- that is, until the late 1990s, w...

E-mail marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to get your name in front of prospective or existing customers, to generate sales or stay top of mind. The e-mail messaging that clogs in-boxes around the world is known as spam, and with good reason: It is unwanted. Its solicitations are rarel...

Social networking site MySpace has announced that it will launch a group of branded channels for video content produced by partners such as The New York Times, National Geographic, and Octane TV. Each channel will be housed within the MySpace Video area of the site and will feature content customize...

There's a new wave of changes headed for the TV and film industries: Television viewers can choose what they watch, when and how they view programs, and where they catch up on their favorite shows. That's just the beginning. The interactivity of the Internet, the emergence of DVR technologies, easie...

Last year marked the first time clothing retailers attracted more online shopping dollars than computer and software e-tailers took in. Travel continues to eclipse all other forms of consumer spending online, however, accounting for $73.4 billion in revenue in 2006. Revenue for apparel, accessories ...

The breadth of problems e-commerce has solved is staggering. We can shop 24/7 at most national retailers and many of our local favorites. We are assured of getting one of the first copies of the latest Harry Potter novel long before it hits bookstores. We order tickets for the latest blockbuster mov...

Google has become increasingly comfortable with the process of acquiring and integrating large merger-and-acquisitions targets, but still intends to focus more on targeted buying of smaller firms, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said during a briefing with reporters ahead of Google's annual shareholders mee...

Apple, Microsoft, Adobe Systems and Real Networks are the targets of a Santa Cruz, Calif., maker of copyright protection technologies that has sent letters demanding that the tech heavyweights cease and desist "actively avoiding" the use of its products. Media Rights Technologies and its digital rad...