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Building a multimillion-dollar business wasn't really on my mind at age 18. Tired of working odd jobs, I saw potential in online advertising. So, in exchange for a share in the startup, I persuaded my older brother Chris to let me charge $99 to his credit card for a domain name. For $33, third broth...

IBM has teamed with ACI Worldwide, an electronic payment software company, to develop a payment system powered by IBM's open standards based System Z platform. The new offering will include IBM's DB2 database, WebSphere middleware and Tivoli management software as well as its Crypto-chip technology...

A Silicon Valley startup with an unlikely name announced Monday a new platform designed to enable telephony in a wide variety of applications. Using an open platform to facilitate connections between telephony and the Web, Ribbit is working with a community of more than 600 developers to help voice-...

In a bid to settle a dispute arising from an aggressive effort to ban gambling by its residents, the United States has agreed to trade concessions meant to make it easier for some European companies to compete against domestic rivals. The U.S. has approved concessions dealing with easing trade restr...

The European broadband market is growing rapidly. At the end of Q2 2007, there were close to 100 million broadband subscribers in Europe. DSL remains the dominant access technology, with over 80 percent of the market share. Nordic countries remain the leaders in broadband penetration, with penetrati...

Online retailers agree that it's better to give than receive, yet they stand to receive more than most. Santa will barely have time to shuck his boots for his slippers before the merchandise misfits begin a return journey to the warehouse to wreak havoc on the season's sales numbers. "The reality is...

China-based software company CDC raked in the most revenue for a third quarter of its history but nevertheless suffered a net loss of more than US$7 million, a situation blamed in part on "pirate" servers allowing people to play its online game Yulgang without authorization. The Q3 report by CDC, wh...

Google's proposed $3.1 billion merger with DoubleClick encountered another stumbling block this week when two privacy groups filed a petition with the FTC, asking its chairwoman, Deborah Platt Majoras, to recuse herself from voting on the deal because of what they say is a conflict of interest. Ther...

There is no doubt that the dollar seems to be heading in one direction: down. Though I have faith in the long-term prospects for the dollar, it's very important to be aware of the dynamics of a falling currency. Because the United States is an international economic powerhouse, the implications of a...

As mobile video gains popularity, new content providers are cropping up all over the place to compete for the attention of consumers -- and their recreational dollars. GoTV, a made-for-mobile television network, has a horse in this race. The company, based in Sherman Oaks, Calif., creates its own mo...

Will movies be as successful as TV shows and videos have been in moving to the Web? Paramount Pictures is betting yes, with the forthcoming launch of what it claims will be the first studio-backed feature film to make its debut online. Coming to the Web on Dec. 19, "Jackass 2.5" is an hour-long fil...

Possibly causing worldwide feelings of deja vu, Opera Software has filed a complaint with the European Commission that says the bundling of Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system amounts to unfair monopolization. Opera, based in Norway, developed and distributes the Opera Web browser. I...

Buying sponsored links on a major search engine isn't cheap. Getting to the top of the search engine pile without paying your way requires mastery of search engine optimization -- a craft that often seems to fall somewhere between advanced calculus and alchemy. However, for small businesses catering...

Continuing an ongoing string of acquisitions, Microsoft on Wednesday announced that it has acquired Multimap, a leading UK-based provider of location and mapping services. The acquisition gives Microsoft powerful new location and mapping technology to complement its existing Virtual Earth, Live Sear...

United Online is pulling the plug on a planned initial public offering for its Classmates Media unit, citing unfavorable market conditions. The move is a reminder that the market for technology IPOs and particularly those in the Internet space remains somewhat limited, even though Classmates, which ...