Beth Cox

Potential suitors are upping the ante for privately held online brokerage Datek Online Holdings Inc., and the dowry may reach into the $1 billion-plus range. Companies said to be interested in Datek include E*Trade Group Inc. , Ameritrade Holding Corp. and Toronto-Dominion Bank, which owns the Internet-based discount brokerage TD Waterhouse. Reuters quoted unnamed sources […]

The government is continuing to look into the possibility of anti-competitive practices at online travel operation Orbitz, but the airline-backed site says the action is “nothing new” and in fact its success has stimulated competition. The U.S. Department of Transportation, which last April signed off on the launch of the travel site, is now asking […]

Continuing to lose money, Linux and open source solutions provider Red Hat Inc. posted a fiscal fourth-quarter GAAP loss of $41.9 million, or 25 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $24.2 million, or 14 cents a share, a year earlier. For its fiscal year ended Feb. 28, the Raleigh, N.C.-based company reported […]

Auction giant eBay Inc. is said to be updating a portion of its recently revised privacy policy following a watchdog group’s complaint to the Federal Trade Commission that the initial revisions might constitute “unfair or deceptive trade practices.” Online privacy advocate Junkbusters.com had asked the FTC for an investigation, objecting to language in a new […]

Internet software and application services company InfoSpace Inc. signed a deal with Ask Jeeves Web Properties, a division of natural language search operation Ask Jeeves Inc. to include Click Popularity Search InfoSpace’s metasearch products. Bellevue, Wash.-based InfoSpace Inc. offers metasearch products that simultaneously search multiple search engines to gather and display the most relevant results. […]

Atlanta-based electronic billing and payments company CheckFree Corp. is eliminating about 450 more jobs and closing four offices, while raising its guidance for third quarter pro forma earnings per share to 3 to 5 cents. CheckFree saw its stock price dip last week when Deutsche Banc Alex Brown lowered its earnings and revenue estimates for […]

The growth of paid online content is going to be slower than media companies would like, according to a new study, which found that a full 70 percent of Internet-using adults polled this month “can’t understand why anyone would pay for content.” The researchers, from Web measurement and analysis firm Jupiter Media Metrix, said that […]

Giving in to the realities of the stock market’s pricing, Sabre Holdings Corp. raised its tender offer for the outstanding shares of online travel operation Travelocity.com Inc. from $23 to $28, and this time, Travelocity said yes. Sabre said it has also entered into an agreement in principle with plaintiffs to settle all pending shareholder […]

Auction giant eBay Inc., continuing its push to become a global operation, is putting up $30 million to buy a one-third stake in EachNet, an online, person-to-person trading operation based in Shanghai. San Jose, Calif.-based eBay , which wants to make sure it gets a share of a mainland China market with a multi-billion dollar […]

Financially battered Delta Air Lines, in significant cost-cutting move, has decided to eliminate base commissions paid to travel agents in the United States and Canada, an action likely to hurt the smaller online travel agent operations. The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), representing 24,000 agencies online and off, called the move “anti-consumer.” The airline’s […]

It’s no wonder Sabre Holdings wants to own all of Travelocity – the Fort Worth, Texas-based online travel operation is keeping up a relentless expansion, this time developing a site in Japan in conjunction with 17 domestic and international airlines serving that country. Travelocity is in the midst of trying to fend off a semi-hostile […]

Online payment service and IPO wunderkind PayPal Inc. is the target of a lawsuit claiming that the company is prone to restricting, freezing or closing customer accounts without good reason. In fact, it’s just that sort of (alleged) thing that prompted creation of a Web site called PayPalwarning.com, replete with horror stories from purportedly innocent […]