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Overstock.com was preparing for its biggest sales day ever. It was just days before the notorious Black Friday, traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the holiday season, and the discount online retailer was all set to break its previous year's sales record. And then it happened -- its in...

Multi-channel retailers were leaders in e-commerce growth in the latest holiday season, but a new study reveals significant opportunity gaps remain for these merchants. The first Evolution of the Multi-Channel Consumer (EMC2) study released yesterday was conducted by Inc., the e-tailing group, Fry a...

After years of sluggish deal-making, early stage venture capital investing appears to have made a comeback in the U.S., with about a third of dollars flowing into seed funding and series A rounds in 2004, according to a report released today by Ernst & Young LLP and VentureOne. The report says U...

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael Powell, who oversaw numerous controversial decisions, many of which were aimed at freeing e-commerce and telecommunication firms from regulation, is reportedly resigning his post. The FCC had no official comment, but widespread reports indicat...

Microsoft continues to lose browser market share to open-source competitors, according to market researcher WebSideStory. Firefox, Opera and Apple's Mac-only Safari are vying for second place in a space that Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates. IE's market share dropped 1.5 percent to 90.3

You probably remember what happened to the tech bubble when it burst in 2000. It was quite a disaster. How could a sector that showed so much promise become so decimated? Exactly what went wrong? And, why does the future now look promising for this once devastated sector? In a previous article, I ta...

In a move to one-up rivals MSN and Yahoo in the online search wars, America Online today announced search innovations designed to let consumers find news, information, audio and video files, and products all in one place. Several new partnerships are also part of AOL's plan to expand its capabilitie...

Normally a Wall Street darling, eBay finds itself in the rare position of disappointing analysts and investors with its fourth quarter earnings report and its forecast for 2005 -- and this at the same time it faces a rare competitive threat. Investors responded by sending eBay shares lower by more t...

One day you are hot, the next you're not. Such is the music business. A day after the International Federation of Phonographic Industries released data demonstrating that the market for digital music is becoming mainstream, another international study reveals consumer dissatisfaction with the channe...

For a technology company, intellectual capital is one of the most important, if not the most important asset. Intellectual capital is more than intellectual property as it is commonly understood in that it also includes a company's trade secrets, know-how, problem-solving methods, customer informati...

In a brewing battle of online auctioneers, discount e-tailer Overstock.com is taking full advantage of eBay's new, higher pricing. Just days after eBay announced a 60 percent price increase that enraged its Store subscribers, Overstock has reduced its listing fees 52 percent. Analysts said eBay coul...

Two new reports say 2004 was a very good year for personal computer sales as demand for mobile machines drove double-digit growth worldwide. The reports, from competing research firms IDC and Gartner, also said the year was especially good for Dell, which continued to rein atop the PC sales charts a...

The market for digital music downloads is becoming mainstream, according to a report issued today by the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI), which showed paid downloads increasing more than tenfold in 2004. Analysts said the popularity of downloading music from the Internet h...

The Internet highway is just a free medium, like the roads and all the highways. Somehow there are those who walk on the roads and those who run, some drive taxis, others drive Ferraris or race tractor-trailers. To each his own, they are all free, and so are the maps. Thank heaven. This brings us to...

IBM posted fourth quarter results that beat Wall Street forecasts for sales and profits, with all of its divisions turning in strong performances. IBM said profit climbed 12 percent to US$3.1 billion, or $1.81 per share, with income boosted by currency exchange rates. Though revenue was up 7 percent...