Spotlight Features

Numerous venture capitalists are nursing wounds sustained when companies collapsed and stopped going public at a record clip. But most of the VC firms that can trace their roots back to the pre-boom era are still hanging on, if not thriving. "Those who came late to the party and tried to grab all...

In its infancy, e-commerce was all about building a Web site, attracting "eyeballs" and capturing orders. But within a few years, with millions invested and no profitability in sight, many e-tailers were forced to close their virtual doors. Now that e-commerce has moved beyond the shakeout stage,...

As e-commerce server providers go head-to-head, touting their wares as the latest and greatest, meaningful hardware comparisons sometimes get lost in the shuffle. But what makes the ultimate e-commerce server? The answer to that question must be based on the particular e-commerce venture and its ...

Analysts agree that Dell's build-to-order model for selling PCs and servers not only works well for current market conditions but also is likely to keep rivals chasing the company for the foreseeable future. Still, the company must overcome some potential long-term hurdles.

Microsoft has generated so much hype about .NET that many are wondering whether the software giant's technology for connecting information, people, systems and devices can live up to its billing. Customers have given the technology a lukewarm, if not downright cold, reception, leading many to que...

Legal professionals face an uphill battle in dealing with thorny new issues raised by the globalization and growth of e-commerce -- from taxes and intellectual property disputes to privacy and cybercrime. According to Thomas Smedinghoff, a partner at law firm Baker & McKenzie, the ever-changi...

The bursting of the high-tech bubble may already have done away with the weakest players in e-commerce, but experts say the sector's survivors still face tough times in the second half of 2002 and beyond. "We are seeing larger players gaining market share against a background of shrinking demand,...

Few companies in recent history, with the exception of spectacular flameouts like Enron, have inspired the kind of loathing that Microsoft has in its climb to the top. "They have a tendency to be like a fighter who gets his knees and elbows into everything," IDC vice president Dan Kusnetzky told ...

Now that the dot-com bubble has burst, sparking a recession that has spread through the U.S. economy, the boom era is facing its share of harsh criticism. But for all the failures that dot-coms brought to the business world, they also were responsible for some truly astounding technological innov...

In this economy, eBay's bid to pay $1.5 billion for PayPal might seem excessive, even for the likes of the auction giant. And while many analysts believe eBay will get its money's worth, others are not convinced. AMR Research analyst Louis Columbus told the E-Commerce Times that he believes eBay ...

In the not-too-distant future, e-commerce technology not only will become smarter and faster, but could completely transform the way companies deal with internal information, customer service and the sales process. This change will occur as new features bring together several separate technologie...

Before last spring, Major League Baseball's Internet efforts were as far-flung and varied as the league's 30 teams. And by and large, they struck out with Web surfers. But since relaunching MLB.com in April 2001 and bringing all of the teams' home pages under one roof, baseball's Web efforts have...

When VeriSign launched in 1995, it touted itself as being the "only company focused 100 percent on digital authentication products and services." But since 2000, the company has ventured into several new markets. Recent earnings reports seem to indicate that VeriSign could be spread too thin, but...

At first, traffic counts were all that mattered to e-commerce. The number of people visiting a site was the single best gauge of a site's success in a new industry. But times have changed. As e-commerce has grown more complex -- becoming one of several channels through which consumers research, s...

In the few years since the Internet has become an important venue for commerce, communications and entertainment, cybercops have tried to impose a variety of rules, regulations and guidelines to protect the interests of consumers and businesses. Unfortunately, however, no mechanism yet exists to ...