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It may not have been noticed in the whirlwind of online transactions on Web sites like eBay or Amazon, but e-commerce turned 25 on Tuesday. On March 4, 1983, the husband-wife team of Alex Randall and Cameron Hall quietly launched a business revolution that was then the stuff of dreams, when their ye...

SOA has been increasingly adopted during the past five years, with its promised benefits validated by early adopters. One of the clearest lessons learned is that SOA is all about finding a better approach -- rather than a better technology -- for enterprise application development. In 2008, we will ...

Taking aim at Google, Microsoft is making its Internet-hosted software application services available to businesses of all sizes. Microsoft Online Services, a hosted-application program that started last year for businesses with more than 5,000 employees, launched its new all-inclusive service as a ...

In the latest sign the music distribution business continues to be roiled by change, Nine Inch Nails has released its new album in a variety of formats, including giving part of it away on file-sharing technologies such as BitTorrent. The musical act fronted by Trent Reznor has released part of its ...

A spammer is going to prison, thanks to a ruling by a divided Virginia Supreme Court. The state's high court on Friday upheld the first felony conviction for illegal spamming in the U.S. when it ruled 4-3 that Virginia's antispamming law did not violate the free speech rights of Jeremy Jaynes. "This...

Online brokerage E*Trade has named Donald H. Layton as its new chief executive officer, giving the financial services industry veteran the task of stemming a stock price drop and finding profitable growth opportunities. Layton had served as chairman of E*Trade's board since last November, when he ca...

Ever since Microsoft made an unsolicited takeover bid for Yahoo -- a $44.6 billion proposition -- Yahoo has been beset with distractions, which the company readily acknowledged in making its annual report. The loss of key employees and the exodus of advertisers from its platform have been among the ...

My sympathies to those out there who used last month's announcements from T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon as an excuse to quickly jump ship from Sprint Nextel and sign a contract with someone else for an all-you-can-eat talk plan at $100 a month. Sprint was the only major U.S. wireless carrier that d...

During the last few years, so-called virtual worlds have evolved. Second Life is a prominent example -- with a registered user base targeting the 10 million mark. Avatars build virtual houses, purchase virtual goods and engage in electronic transactions. Conducting business in these virtual worlds i...

Even in a post CAN-SPAM world, where legal protections and technological advances give consumers more control than ever over their inboxes, e-mail remains a key component of many interactive marketing strategies. Commercial e-mail remains a cost-effective way to reach consumers, especially for busin...

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for not responding in a timely manner to a request it made six months ago under the Freedom of Information Act. The organization had asked for any communications between former DoJ attorney Jane Horvath and...

eBay has reached a settlement with MercExchange in a case that had bounced around several courts and prompted a landmark Supreme Court decision. The San Jose, Calif.-based online auctioneer will purchase three patents, including technology central to its vaunted "Buy It Now" feature, from Great Fall...

PC maker Dell posted double-digit sales growth for its fourth quarter, but missed analysts' profit and revenue targets. The results suggest that the onetime market leader's new retail strategy and turnaround plans are still works in progress. Dell's sales rose 10 percent to $16 billion while it ship...

XM Satellite Radio Holdings announced double-digit growth in revenues and its subscriber base despite Congressional foot-dragging in regard to its potential merger with rival Sirius Satellite Radio. The company's revenues increased 22 percent in 2007 to $1.1 billion, driven in large measure by its 1...

Reverse shell mergers have emerged as the de facto global IPO marketplace for emerging growth companies. Last year, there were 222 completed reverse merger transactions. Collectively, they were valued at $8.36 billion, a 14 percent increase over the previous year. We expect 2008 to show greater inc...