Beth Cox

Following through on a restructuring. one of Korea’s largest broadband ISPs is selling some of its domestic leased line cable assets, including a local fiber optic network, to New York-based SK Global in a $295 million deal. SK Global is trading unit of South Korean conglomerate SK Group. “With the purchase, we expect synergies in […]

Despite the early hype, B2B e-marketplaces have turned out to be spectacularly less successful than anticipated, putting players such as Verticalnet and others in a scramble to refocus their business model along more profitable lines, such as software. And for Verticalnet , whose stock is down in the 15 cents a share range, that refocus […]

Whether it’s a true price war, an act of desperation, or simply a short-term marketing ploy, consumers likely are smiling all over the country as yet another online retailer enters the free-shipping game. This time BestBuy.com, operated by the real-world consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Inc. said it is offering free ground shipping on everything […]

Search engine AltaVista, aiming to keep up with advancing search technologies like that of Ask Jeeves’ Teoma, launched its Prisma technology, which provides a 360-degree spectrum of associated words, phrases, names and concepts related to a query. And Mountain View, Calif.-based Google inked a deal with the AT&T Worldnet Service to provide its search technology […]

Department stores and other big retailers introduced the concept of a store detective long ago, to keep an eye on the customers as well as the hired help. Now payments processor WorldPay is rolling out a high-tech version for use by online commerce operations. The privately held UK company, with American headquarters in Sterling, Va., […]

Streaming media software maker RealNetworks is taking the old-fashioned book club commerce model into the Internet age, launching a subscription-based games service for its online RealOne Arcade game site. The Seattle-based company said the subscription service, called GamePass for RealOne Arcade, will make it “easy and economical” for consumers to acquire new games on a […]

Despite complaints from travel agency organizations that online sales operations can put them at a disadvantage, the Internet is actually beginning to drive “significant business activity” for traditional, off-line travel agencies, contends a new report. Data analysis from Respond Networks shows that consumers increasingly are doing their travel research for larger transactions online, then completing […]

An anti-fraud Internet site that just launched a service allowing consumers to find out if their credit card numbers have been stolen proved so popular in its first several days of operation that its server went down. The CardCops site compiled a database of stolen credit card numbers and made it available to consumers after […]

The airline-backed online travel site Orbitz went on the offensive Wednesday, telling a federal commission that government interference with its business could limit the consumer benefits of online travel, slow innovation and “protect high-cost intermediaries.” The National Commission to Ensure Consumer Information and Choice in the Airline Industry was meeting again today, this time in […]

Online travel sites are rolling out a steady stream of promotions to win the business of summer vacation travelers, including Disney World trips, July 4th offers and Expedia’s latest, a Maui flight, hotel and oh yes, wedding combination. Bellevue, Wash.-based Expedia already has a Las Vegas weddings selection, and now Hawaii is being added to […]

It’s no secret that computers have revolutionized consumer air travel, especially with database fare checking and online ticket sales, and now some of the airlines are moving to get rid of paper tickets entirely. Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, for example, has been looking to e-tickets as a way to cut costs and […]

Scott Blum’s online sales operation Buy.com launched another attack in the e-commerce wars today, this time offering to beat Amazon’s book prices by 10 percent. The move follows last week’s offer of free shipping on everything, period. But not to be outdone, Amazon launched a brand new Canadian site, its fifth international operation. Seattle-based Amazon.com […]