Beth Cox

There’s good news for online merchants as yet more surveys predict a ho-ho-ho kind of holiday selling season. But it comes with a warning for consumers as another report says online rip-offs of shoppers are on the rise. First the good news. Forrester Research said that regardless of whether an economic recovery is around the […]

When Waltham, Mass.-based Lycos.com was planning out the overhaul of its network architecture a few months ago, it didn’t look any further than Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai Technologies Inc., to help it hold down the costs of doing so. The content delivery network is being credited with helping Terra Lycos provide performance and reliability of dynamic […]

Brand awareness is the top influence on consumers when purchasing online, according to the first of a series of “eSpending Reports” for the 2001 holiday season. The reports are being put together by Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and NetRatings Inc. and will track weekly online shopping and buying attitudes. Findings from the first study revealed […]

Incentive marketing company MyPoints.com Inc., which was acquired by the interactive unit of airline company UAL Corp. during summer, signed a marketing agreement with flower and gift seller FTD.com. San Francisco-based MyPoints, which claims to have an opt-in database of more than 10 million members and provides advertisers with a suite of “rewarded media products,” […]

Some people are trying to make an online buck out of other people’s anthrax worries, and now the Federal Trade Commission has stepped in with a consumer alert warning that “fraudsters often follow the headlines, tailoring their offers to prey on consumers’ fears and vulnerabilities.” The FTC warned that some the drugs sold online “could […]

Online retailing giant Amazon.com launched what it calls the online equivalent of a department store credit card, without the actual card – a private label virtual card product called the Amazon Credit Account. The Seattle-based company, which has been struggling to get its stock price out of the cellar despite its predictions of pro forma […]

Name-your-own-price travel company Priceline.com Thursday beat revised estimates for third-quarter earnings, coming in with a pro forma profit of 3 cents a share on earnings of $6.3 million. The Norwalk, Conn.-based company’s revenues for the third quarter were much reduced as a result of the events of Sept. 11, coming in at $302 million compared […]

Troubled online real estate behemoth Homestore.com Inc., as it had foreshadowed, posted a third-quarter pro forma net loss, excluding certain charges, of $6.9 million or 6 cents per share. That compared to a pro forma loss of $19.8 million, or 19 cents a share, a year earlier. Executives say the events of Sept. 11 and […]

Palo Alto, Calif.-based online payments company PayPal, which announced an IPO filing in late September, has rolled out a new “Shop Anywhere” feature for members using debit card technology. The company said that with the new PayPal debit bar, its 11 million members can now shop anywhere on the Web where MasterCard is accepted with […]

Shares in San Francisco-based NextCard, the Internet banking and credit card company, plunged as much as 80 percent Wednesday when the company said it will be “significantly undercapitalized” after it follows recommendations from banking regulators. NextCard also said it has retained Goldman Sachs to explore opportunities for the sale of the company. Regulators told the […]

As predicted during its third-quarter earnings conference call, Amazon.com launched a new store on its site called simply Magazine Subscriptions that features a range of national, regional and enthusiast publications that will be cross-sold to buyers of other items. Launched in time for the holiday sales season, the magazine store lets customers who are buying […]

Homestore.com Inc. , which announced a major restructuring last week that included a 20 percent workforce reduction, was downgraded by Goldman, Sachs analysts today “in light of earnings growth concerns, segment analysis and execution risk.” Homestore stock fell rapidly in the early going, and was down more than 14 percent or 86 cents to $5.03 […]