Beth Cox

Not to be outdone by rival travel site Expedia, the airline-backed site Orbitz rolled out Orbitz for Business Monday, offering online corporate booking and tracking tool that the company said can save companies of all sizes “up to 75 percent” on transaction costs. The move follows Bellevue, Wash.-based Expedia’s launch into the corporate travel arena […]

At one time during the heyday of the Internet gold rush, DrKoop.com had a market capitalization of more than $1 billion. Now, its assets have been sold for $186,000. The acquiring company is Boynton Beach, Fla.-based Vitacost.com, which describes itself as a “privately held, online source of consumer health information and high-quality health products and […]

The online gambling business, once thought to be a can’t-lose proposition for offshore casino operations, has been taking it on the chin lately as more and more high-profile credit card companies have begun refusing gaming transactions. And things didn’t get any brighter this week when San Jose, Calif.-based eBay

The New York State attorney general has subpoenaed online payments outfit PayPal, seeking information related to gambling payments that are funneled through the service by some of its users. The timing of the move is somewhat ironic, given that auction giant eBay said this week that it plans to shed the gaming side of PayPal’s […]

Online travel operation Expedia said it very much likes its prospects as a stand-alone company, despite a putative offer from majority shareholder USA Interactive to acquire all the rest of the outstanding shares. Expedia named a special director’s committee last month to examine an offer from Barry Diller’s USA Interactive to acquire all of the […]

Offering up some competition for eBay’s tickets area, Microsoft’s MSN network signed deals with Ticketmaster and LiquidSeats in launching a new shopping channel called MSN Tickets with Ticketmaster, and said it would offer exclusive presale promotions to users in advance of general sales. eBay also has a deal with San Francisco-based LiquidSeats to let users […]

Verticalnet took another step in its transformation from a B2B e-marketplace company, this time rolling out a new version (4.0) of its “collaborative supply chain” applications. This time around the software suite integrates the assets of Atlas Commerce, which the company acquired in December 2001. The Malvern, Pa.-based company, a former rising star in the […]

The NextCard home page still encourages people to sign up for the Internet credit card, but the feds, who seized its failed NextBank subsidiary last February, are advising about 800,000 Visa cardholders that their plastic is no longer good. The news really should not be a surprise, as NextCard went down with a boom when […]

Online travel operation Expedia, moving to compete forcefully in the corporate travel arena, is acquiring Seattle-based business travel firm Metropolitan Travel to help with the effort. Bellevue, Wash.-based Expedia also launched a new corporate area on its Web site, although at the moment it offers little except a phone number for Metropolitan Travel and a […]

Moving to fortify its .NET single-ID application with enhanced e-commerce functionality, Microsoft is teaming up with Arcot Systems to integrate Arcot’s TransFort payment authentication platform into the Passport system. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Arcot is the supplier of online authentication systems for Verified by Visa and MasterCard Secure Payment Application. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said […]

London-based digital wagering operation UKBetting plc is acquiring a sports betting business unit from Sports.com Ltd., the discontinued European venture that counted among its partners SportsLine.com , publisher of CBS SportsLine.com. Being acquired by UKBetting is SCG Enterprises, the wagering side of Sports.com Ltd., for about $1.03 million. Sports.com, which is 30 percent owned by […]

Online payment service Paypal proved it had legs when it went public last February at $13 a share, and Monday the whole enchilada paid off as eBay agreed to pay $1.5 billion for the company, already used by lots of buyers and sellers at the giant auction site. San Jose, Calif.-based eBay , which also […]