Beth Cox

Travel site operation Expedia , taking aim at the “things change” phenomena, is launching an online airline ticket exchange that lets ticketed travelers with altered plans make new arrangements. The Bellevue, Wash.-based company said the new Expedia Online Exchange Wizard lets travelers research alternative plans, calculate price differences and complete changes without ever calling customer […]

Kmart’s retail Web site operation apparently will continue, but the BlueLight Special of Internet access for only $8.95 a month is going away as the assets are being sold off, probably to United Online, operator of the NetZero and Juno Internet services. A spokesman for Westlake Village, Calif.-based United Online confirmed that it has a […]

Seems like old name brands never die, their intellectual property just gets sold off at Internet auctions. At least that appears to be the case for the bankrupt Montgomery Wards, Service Merchandise and Heilig-Meyers. Bid4Assets, a Silver Spring, Md.-based company that specializes in auctions of goods for both the government and businesses, said it is […]

Microsoft’s MSN HomeAdvisor service has re-upped its deal with Builder Homesite Inc. (BHI), a consortium of U.S. home builders and operator of NewHomeSource.com. The deal (financial arrangements were not disclosed) gives visitors to MSN HomeAdvisor (which claims six million visitors a month) access to BHI’s listings of new homes by builder or community. Visitors can […]

Movie ticketing company Fandango, which sells theater tickets online and by phone, is expanding its reach via a marketing deal with retail operation Buy.com and e-commerce outsourcer United Commerce Service (UCS). UCS, which created the technology that runs Buy.com, said it will develop a co-branded Buy.com-Fandango online store. Financial terms of the agreement were not […]

Pixelpark may not be in the picture long for German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG, largely because it just isn’t making any money. Bertelsmann’s top boss, CEO Gunter Thielen, said the company may sell some or all of its majority stake in the e-business consulting operation. The move would continue distancing Bertelsmann from the online world. […]

Patent infringement lawsuits and PayPal seem to go hand-in-hand, and this time the court action was brought by credit card issuer First USA, a unit of BankOne . PayPal, whose IPO was delayed by a patent infringement suit last February, of course denied the contention. The earlier suit, brought by online risk management company CertCo, […]

Omaha, Neb.-based Ameritrade closed its $1.29 billion acquisition of Jersey City, N.J.-based Datek Online Holdings Corp., creating the largest online brokerage firm in terms of daily equity trades. Stockholders of both companies voted to approve the deal. But whether that translates to an improved bottom line for the merged operation remains to be seen. On […]

Hutchison-Priceline in Hong Kong is sending out an SMS via a partner deal with Hutchison Telecommunications in Hong Kong that will roll out a promotion for the name-your-own-price travel model to Orange SMS users. The deal is said to be one of the first major forays into SMS marketing by a non-telecommunications company in Hong […]

Online retail giant Amazon.com is making some waves in the travel sector, filing suit against Expedia for alleged non-payment of about $3.7 million in connection with the travel site’s placement on Amazon. Bellevue, Wash.-based Expedia was mum on the lawsuit, in which Seattle-based Amazon claimed Expedia refused to pay up unless the contract was renegotiated. […]

Staples and OfficeMax, eat your hearts out. Amazon.com signed an e-commerce alliance deal with Office Depot and launched an office products store on its site that offers more than 50,000 products. Like its rival Staples and OfficeMax, Office Depot has long had its own online sales operation, but this deal clearly expands its audience reach. […]

Two formal complaints filed by the American Association of Travel Agents against the airlines and airline consortium Web ticketing operation Orbitz have been dismissed by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The complaints, one filed in 1999 and one last March, alleged that the carriers and later the airline-owned travel site attempted to “impede consumers’ access […]