Beth Cox

It took longer than expected, but online travel operation Expedia is now officially majority-controlled by USA Networks Inc. instead of Microsoft Corp. . Shareholders of Bellevue, Wash.-based Expedia , which continues to be publicly traded, approved the merger transferring ownership of 33.7 million shares to USA from Microsoft. Another 1 million shares were exchanged by […]

Name-your-price e-commerce operation Priceline.com signed a technology deal making Atlanta-based Worldspan as its preferred global distribution system to power the e-commerce company’s travel pricing and reservations service. Priceline , which reported its earnings on Monday, said that it will use Worldspan ePricing and enhancements to Worldspan Hotel Select. Worldspan, a provider of electronic travel information, […]

The new brass at troubled real estate play Homestore.com, which named a new management team in January after admitting that it overstated earnings, is revamping its organizational structure and will shed about 300 jobs. The new top management said in a release that the move is aimed at aligning “the company more tightly with its […]

Name-your-price e-commerce company Priceline.com named itself a little pro forma fourth quarter profit (excluding restructuring and other special charges), reporting net income of $3.3 million, or 1 cent per share. That compares to a fourth quarter 2000 pro forma net loss of $25 million, or 15 cents per share. Revenue in the quarter was $235.3 […]

Name-your-own-price travel outfit Priceline.com, turning out to be an Internet survivor, scored a nice coup by signing an agreement to create a new travel booking service for Web auction giant eBay Inc. Norwalk, Conn.-based Priceline said the service will serve as the cornerstone of eBay’s travel business, which will include airline, hotel, car, cruises, timeshares […]

The online advertising industry needs better and more trusted site measurement standards, according to a new survey of more than 150 advertising folks, 75 percent of whom think the traffic statistics in the media kits for most Web companies are inaccurate. The survey, sponsored by Woburn, Mass.-based Web measurement firm Internet Profiles Corp. (I/PRO), found […]

Armonk, N.Y.-based International Business Machines Corp. is teaming with a payment technologies unit of First Data Corp. to market electronic payments solutions to the business and government marketplaces. IBM said the arrangement is with eONE Global LP and its subsidiaries, SurePay and govONE Solutions. Financial arrangements were not disclosed. The companies said that the e-payment […]

Online auction giant eBay, which got its start helping the hoi polloi sell stuff taking up space in the garage, signed a deal with renowned upscale auction house Sotheby’s, a purveyor of fine and decorative art, antiques, rare books, jewelry and collectibles. San Jose, Calif.-based eBay Inc. said the agreement will introduce Sothebys.com online auctions […]

The Internet has always been a haven for phony stock touters and financial scamsters, but it’s not every day that investors have to be wary of hoaxes staged by the Securities and Exchange Commission. And yet that’s exactly what happened as the federal securities watchdog admitted to setting up an online “scam” involving a fictitious […]

Stepping further into the sports fantasy game arena, Yahoo! Inc. signed a deal with SportingNews.com (TSN) to distribute its content and co-promote both free and pay-to-play fantasy games covering professional football, basketball, baseball and hockey. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo! said fantasy baseball will launch in mid-February at fantasysports.yahoo.com and on the Web site of St. Louis-based […]

SpeechWorks International Inc. and Motorola have teamed up to develop what they say is the first Distributed Speech Recognition prototype (DSR) deployed over a wireless network. Boston-based SpeechWorks , a provider of speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies, said the prototype uses its OpenSpeech Recognizer (OSR) speech recognition engine and DSR architecture. Meanwhile, Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM […]

Online travel operation Expedia Inc. posted record revenues of $82 million and real earnings of 8 cents per fully diluted share for the quarter ending Dec. 31, compared with a year-ago net loss of $25 million, or 53 cents per share. Expedia said its net income excluding costs such as merger expenses rose to $19 […]