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Signaling its intention to be a major player in the online music segment, America Online has purchased MusicNow, a digital music site that specializes in subscription packages. AOL said it reached the deal to buy the firm from electronics retailer Circuit City in late September and closed the purcha...

In today's global economy, more businesses sell products online, in more markets and in more languages, than ever before. According to a recent Forrester Research report, "Web Content Management Adoption in 2005," enterprises are shifting focus from cost containment and internal efficiencies -- to g...

For the second time in four months, Microsoft said it would buy a privately held firm developing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies, this time with an eye toward adding more communications tools to its Office productivity suite. Microsoft said it would pay an undisclosed sum to acquire...

A fruitless prosecution against a teenager in English court highlights the inadequacy of that nation's cyberlaws to cope with denial of service attacks. The youth was accused of sending 5 million e-mails to a former employer, thereby shutting down the company's servers. The case did not fail because...

Their numbers may not jibe but two prominent research firms agree on one thing: the holidays will be merry for online retailers. Forrester Research and JupiterResearch released their holiday sales projections for online retailers this week and both predicted double-digit increases for the period. Du...

Lawmakers have revived legislation that could provide a huge boost to efforts by music and movie studios to curb online piracy by letting federal agencies write rules that outlaw tactics used to copy programs when they are broadcast. Two bills on Capitol Hill dealing with so-called broadcast flags a...

All of a sudden, there is a rush to secure a copyright on any distinct smell from our daily lives and exclusively use it in conjunction with a branded product or a service. The most recent, notably aggressive attempts come by way of Paris, via Eden Sarl, which tried very hard to get the smell of str...

Government -- and industry -- executives are moving forward with plans to increase the use of authentication technologies, and prevent fraud online. The Direct Marketing Association, based in Chicago, two weeks ago issued a set of rules for its members, and the federal government, a few days earlier...

In what is widely expected to be the start of a trend, NBC said it will become the first national network to put the entire broadcast of its evening news onto the Web just hours after it originally airs. MSNBC.com will start hosting downloads of NBC Nightly News on Nov. 7. The downloads will be free...

In the offshore outsourcing field, client relations managers are often found at both the facility and the facility's North American sales office, if one has been established. As described herein, some firms operate without a North American presence, particularly if they are smaller firms. Most ou...

Continuing efforts to push its search tools deeper into the business environment, Google said it had struck a deal with IBM to have its enterprise-grade desktop search function integrated into Big Blue tools that search networks. Under the deal, terms of which were not disclosed, customers using IBM...

Sprint Nextel today announced plans to launch a digital music download service as part of an effort to build its entertainment, information and communication services that will operate on its high-speed Vision Network. Sprint's timing is good, with research group Ovum predicting the U.S. wireless mu...

A group of communications technology firms has filed complaints with the European Commission (EC), asking that agency to investigate whether Qualcomm engaged in anti-competitive practices in the licensing of its technology for so-called 3G mobile networks and handsets. The companies that filed compl...

Riding strong demand for personal computers, Microsoft managed to beat analysts expectations for earnings, with income rising 24 percent, but analysts say the software giant's results had some weak spots, including in the online arena. Microsoft said revenue in its first fiscal quarter rose 6 percen...

Are you or your company considering a business acquisition? If so, there is no escaping the need to perform thorough and competent due diligence on your acquisition target. Due diligence can be defined as a complete investigation of an intended acquisition. This investigation of the prospect must in...