E-Commerce

AMD has announced the settlement of patent claims with Intergraph in an agreement that calls for AMD to pay Intergraph $10 million, plus 2 percent of profits from its microprocessor sales for three years. The maximum payment from AMD is to be capped at $25 million. In return, Intergraph will grant A...

Microsoft has settled a long-simmering patent-infringement complaint with InterTrust Technology, agreeing to pay $440 million to license all of the firm's digital rights management (DRM) technology. Settlement of the patent claims, which were first filed in 2001, is just the latest move by Microsoft...

Since its announcement last week that it will begin offering a free Web mail service called Gmail, Google has been blasted by privacy advocates. They say the service's features set a dangerous precedent in its collection of user information. On Tuesday, 28 electronic privacy organizations sent an op...

Taking another step into the outsourcing fray, IBM has agreed to purchase an India-based business processing company that handles back-office support and call centers for several U.S. firms, including Amazon.com. IBM said the 6,000 employees of Daksh eServices will become part of its business consul...

As the standard for e-business Web sites moves ever higher and online shoppers become increasingly demanding, Web site performance can make the difference between a sale and a lost customer. CEO Tim Drees, who founded privately held Webmetrics in 1999 to provide transaction monitoring services and h...

Aiming to avoid a possible showdown with law-enforcement officials, Yahoo and Google, the two largest search engines -- and online-advertising generators -- have said they will stop taking advertisements in the United States from gambling casinos and related companies. Both search providers reached ...

After years of legal wrangling, Sun Microsystems and Microsoft jointly announced that they have brokered a 10-year "technology collaboration" agreement, plus several related agreements -- including a settlement of all pending legal issues between them. As part of the deals, Microsoft will pay Sun $7...

Gateway has said it will close all of its remaining retail stores, putting some 2,500 people out of work and driving the final nail into the coffin of an ambitious but failed approach to selling computers. The additional layoffs -- which amount to nearly 40 percent of Gateway's remaining workforce -...

Google has confirmed to the E-Commerce Times that its newly announced Web mail service is not an April Fool's hoax, despite Thursday morning speculation. "It's for real," Google spokesperson David Krane said in an interview. The free Gmail service, which will offer users a full gigabyte of e-mail st...

In what may -- or may not -- be its most ambitious foray beyond its core search business to date, Google has announced it will launch a free e-mail service called Gmail that will offer users a full gigabyte of storage space. The tone and timing of the press release, dated April 1st, led some to spec...

SBC Communications, one of the telecom industry's landline leaders, announced Tuesday its plans to roll out "FreedomLink" WiFi hotspot service at UPS Store locations throughout the United States. The announcement is the latest stage in the company's overall FreedomLink strategy, which promises to br...

In a move that highlights the convergence of Web search and online shopping, Yahoo has announced plans to buy European comparison-shopping site Kelkoo for about $575 million in cash. Yahoo cited data showing Kelkoo reaches about 10 percent of all European Internet users and counts some 2,500 individ...

After spending years in sell-off mode, Internet-era darling CMGI has returned to bullish acquisition mode, saying it will pay a combination of cash and stock worth approximately $230 million to acquire supply chain management firm Modus Media. CMGI said the deal also highlights a return to its origi...

In an agreement billed as one of the largest Internet-only content deals in history, Microsoft has won the right to offer streaming audio and video of Major League Baseball games through its MSN service. As part of their monthly $9.95 fee, MSN Premium users also will get MLB.com's All Access service...

Novell has made several announcements concerning Linux at its annual BrainShare developers conference and is expected to announce a partnership with HP to bring Linux to its corporate laptop and desktop computers. On Tuesday, meanwhile, Novell announced that IBM had completed a $50 million investmen...