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Most e-commerce sites are approaching their 10th birthday. The standard approach -- with left-hand navigation and search, a product catalog and product detail, cart and checkout -- is a tired format. Just like brick-and-mortar stores, Web stores need refurbishing, and retail is the new darling of We...

Sun Microsystems announced a $34 million loss in its fiscal third quarter as the company continued to repurchase its stock, reinvest cash in the business and pursue acquisitions and expansion in emerging markets. That's a steep drop from the $67 million the company made in the same quarter in 2007.

Entertainment conglomerate Viacom, riding a wave of success from a video game launch and a strong showing by its television enterprises, reported a 33 percent increase in first-quarter profit Friday. Viacom, which owns the Nickelodeon, MTV and BET networks as well as moviemaker Paramount, reported e...

The average compensation for an S&P 500 company's CEO was US$14.2 million in 2007, according to the AFL-CIO's 2007 Trends in CEO Pay survey. Some CEOs are even compensated multiple times that amount. This raises the question: When is executive compensation too high? One might also ask, are direc...

I am an unadulterated, unabashed shopper. I shop online and offline. I window shop, make lists of things I would like to buy, and am on intimate terms with the latest online retailers, from Amazon and Endless.com to Woot.com, eBay and beyond. The frustrations the typical e-commerce sites present whe...

A closely watched meeting of the Microsoft board of directors has reportedly ended with CEO Steve Ballmer given the authorization -- and possibly the extra cash -- needed to do what it takes to get the Yahoo acquisition done or decide to drop it. Microsoft's board met Wednesday evening in Redmond, W...

eBay's unusual legal dispute with executives from Craigslist stems from eBay's decision to bring its Kijiji alternative to the United States. eBay disclosed the details of the spat in a filing in a Delaware court, where it filed the case, known as "eBay Domestic Holdings v. Craig Newmark, et al" las...

A federal judge has established a framework that determines the licensing fee amounts three online services -- Yahoo, AOL and RealNetworks -- should pay to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. The fees could amount to $100 million, according to ASCAP, and will be paid to member...

While demand generation professionals consistently turn to a wide variety of direct marketing software and e-mail marketing tools in search of sales leads, current research by Aberdeen points to a significant spend associated with a more human element: outsourced B2B teleservices, provided by a larg...

It's a phrase that we hear all too frequently: "We're moving off our mainframe." Yet virtually anyone who has ever had a mainframe continues to utilize it in some fashion. These robust and highly functional legacy systems contain years and years of data, and when you're talking about abandoning t...

A federal judge's ruling against the RIAA not only represents a setback for the litigious trade group in one particular lawsuit, but also opens a Pandora's box of technicalities that could mean a few speed bumps ahead for its legal steamroller. In Atlantic v. Howell, the RIAA moved for summary judgm...

Media giant Time Warner plans to sell off its remaining 84 percent stake in its recently spun-off cable company. The company unveiled the strategy as it posted weaker profit and its AOL Web portal grew modestly in advertising revenue. Time Warner said net profit for the first quarter was $771 millio...

Internet service provider and Classmates.com parent United Online has agreed to acquire floral vendor FTD Group for about US$800 million. United Online's offer of $15.08 per share is about a 12 percent premium on FTD's closing price of $13.50 on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday. As part of the de...

It's all about image in the fashion world. An apparel or accessory designer's brick-and-mortar stores must appear ever so alluring to the passerby, and its magazine ads should leave readers pining for the latest fashions. Then there's its online store, which visitors expect to be faultless and conti...

More than a year after it shut down The WB Television Network, Warner Bros. said Monday it is bringing back the brand as an advertising-supported, video-on-demand site. Warner will launch a beta version of TheWB.com sometime early next month as part of a larger push to capitalize on new channels for...