Beth Cox

Helped out by hotel room sales, Priceline.com Inc. , reporting after the closing bell, said it made 2 cents a share on a GAAP basis for the first quarter, which was exactly what analysts on average had been expecting. The name-your-price company said that net income for the quarter was $3.9 million, compared to a […]

Autobytel Inc. , which says it operates the Internet’s largest online buying service for new cars, signed a marketing/fulfillment deal with automotive classified ad marketplace AutoTrader.com. The deal means that AutoTrader.com’s new car shoppers will have the option to request competitive, no-haggle prices through Irvine, Calif.-based Autobytel’s Autoweb.com dealer network. Financial arrangements were not disclosed, […]

Continuing with what is now a long-term effort to bolster its ad revenue with paid services, Web portal Yahoo! Inc. is launching Yahoo! Advice, a co-branded, fee-based service offered in partnership with New York City-based LiveAdvice. LiveAdvice says it offers “reliable, trusted Advisors” who, for a per-minute fee, can provide advice by phone “about money, […]

Former Priceline.com Inc. CEO Daniel H. Schulman, who was forced out about a year ago as the name-your-own-price e-commerce company began executing a turn-around plan, was paid $600,000 simply to get out of the way, according to a company filing made Friday with the SEC. The payment was required by his employment agreement. At the […]

Growth in e-commerce, spurred by travel sales and a general renewed confidence on the part of consumers, continues to be a bright spot in the Internet economy, despite a continued slump in IT spending by businesses. The Commerce Department said in its first-quarter report that the U.S. economy was running at the fastest pace in […]

WebMD Corp. finally made good on its year-old strategic alliance with America Online Inc. as the two teamed for the launch of a new AOL Health Channel featuring WebMD’s healthcare content, tools and educational services. When last we heard from the struggling Elmwood Park, N.J.-based WebMD, the company was busy acquiring the portal assets of […]

Demonstrating that the IT spending slowdown just goes on and on, e-commerce outsourcer Digital River, reporting after the market close, posted a first-quarter net loss of $3.5 million or 13 cents per share on a GAAP basis and said its CFO is departing. That loss compares with a net loss of $6.2 million, or 28 […]

Seattle-based e-commerce bellwether Amazon.com Inc. exceeded its pro forma operating profit goal for the first quarter, lowered some book prices and raised its financial guidance. The e-tailer said net sales for the quarter were $847 million, compared with $700 million in the first quarter of 2001, an increase of 21 percent. Fully diluted, the net […]

Omaha, Neb.-based online brokerage Ameritrade, which just agreed to shell out about $1.29 billion to acquire Datek Online Holdings, squeaked in with a small second-quarter profit. The company today was touting its ability “to continue to manage for profitability despite market conditions.” Net income came in at $1.9 million or 1 cent a share, compared […]

Borders Group Inc., which signed an online alliance with e-tail giant Amazon.com a year ago, now will provide Amazon users with the option of picking up books, music CDs and DVDs at Borders’ bricks- and-mortar stores nationwide The deal puts another arrow in Amazon’s quiver, and the timing was certainly nice, coming just hours before […]

Demonstrating that it means business when it comes to online privacy for kids, the FTC marked the second anniversary of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by cracking down on the Etch-A-Sketch Web site and sending warning letters to 50 other sites. The Bryan, Ohio-based Ohio Art Co. , manufacturer of the Etch-A-Sketch drawing […]

Although the forecasts call for relatively slow growth in mobile shopping and travel purchases via cell phones and PDAs, e-commerce outsourcer Digital River is making a bet that over-the-air electronic software delivery will catch on big time. The Minneapolis-based company said it plans to expand its presence in the mobile commerce (m-commerce) industry and will […]