Beth Cox

Technology buyout fund Francisco Partners is acquiring General Electric’s B2B e-commerce company, GE Global eXchange Services (GXS), in a deal valued at $800 million as GE turns its focus toward its core businesses. Fairfield, Conn.-based GE said it will retain a 10 percent stake in the business, and Global eXchange CEO Harvey Seegers will stay […]

Virgin Entertainment Group, North America, has turned to e-tailer Amazon.com < QUOTE NASDAQ:AMZN> to power the Virgin Megastore online operation as a co-branded Web site. Amazon has similar deals with Borders.com for books, Toys ‘R’ Us and others. Privately held Virgin Entertainment said that the alliance also includes a deal in Japan by which Virgin […]

Lots of the folks who are doing well on eBay left full-time jobs to make both themselves and the company a success, and now the auction giant has decided to offer a key perk for the self-employed — health insurance. Meg Whitman, CEO of San Jose, Calif.-based eBay , told a weekend gathering of eBay […]

Remember when you might spend a Saturday afternoon listening to new music CDs on head phones in a so-called record store? Those days are fading away as the next wave of Digital Rights Management technology rolls in. In fact, IBM’s Electronic Media Management System (EMMS), the Armonk, N.Y. based computer giant’s proprietary digital media technology, […]

Will free or low-cost shipping charges be the key to taking e-commerce mainstream? Or is shipping just a gimmick for the big players, designed to win customers away from the little guys in the short term, but not sustainable over the long haul? This week Seattle-based Amazon.com cut its free shipping threshold from $99 to […]

Taking some steps to solidify its position in the e-payments and billing space, the venerable Wells Fargo signed two deals in two days, one with PayPal and the other with CheckFree Corp. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo , the fourth-largest U.S. bank, said its deal with Mountain View, Calif.-based PayPal makes it the provider of secure […]

The front-line action in the e-commerce wars is shifting to shipping charges as Amazon’s reduction this week was quickly topped by privately held Buy.com, which instituted “free shipping site-wide with no minimum purchase required.” The big question is whether some of the smaller players can afford to keep up the fight. And if they can’t, […]

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is outsourcing a new feature for the agency that will allow for electronic filing of patent applications. It’s all part of a plan to go from a tradition-bound, paper-based application process to one that is both more appropriate and more efficient for the Internet age. The agency, a unit […]

Turning up the heat on rival retailers, Amazon.com is cutting the minimum order size to qualify for free shipping from $99 to $49. The only catch is that it’s a time-limited marketing test. Seattle based Amazon said that its shipping offer — called the Free Super Saver Shipping option — is expected to last three […]

Making good on a deal signed last January, online auction giant eBay and upscale auction house Sotheby’s launched a new, joint Web site for the Internet sale of the kind of fine art, antiques and collectibles for which Sotheby’s is famous. The new Sotheby’s site, built and hosted by San Jose, Calif.-based eBay , features […]

Long gone from its garage sale roots, auction giant eBay has attracted all kinds of online entrepreneurs, both small and large, and now it’s making a move to provide its business users with office space, too. Real-world office space. San Jose, Calif.-based eBay is adding to the offerings in its real estate section via a […]

Putting yet another crimp into the phone equipment sector, Lucent Technologies said it expects a 10 to 15 percent decline in revenues for the third quarter, compared to its $3.52 billion second quarter. The Murray Hill, N.J.-based company, said to be the largest provider of telecom equipment in the world, cited “continuing market softness.” The […]