Beth Cox

An extension of the ban on new Internet taxes could fall into limbo if the U.S. Senate adjourns until next week because of the anthrax threat in the nation’s capital. A scaled back extension of the ban was being pushed for quick action in the Senate after the House passed the measure on a voice […]

NBC has signed a hosting and fulfillment deal with ShopNBC, operated by Value Vision TV, for its new NBC Store site, which is launching on the Web this week. The new NBC Store site was designed by the ShopNBC interactive team, which will provide online maintenance as well as hosting services. Fulfillment will be facilitated […]

All across America, anthrax-leery corporate mailrooms are taking extra care with envelopes and packages, prompting speculation on whether the Internet might see a corresponding rise in e-mail usage. However, even the biggest advocates of the electronic medium admit no empirical evidence exists to support that notion. A rise in corporate e-mail usage is “an interesting […]

Moving decisively onto the pure-play e-commerce scene, Yahoo! Inc. launched both a new, integrated shopping network and a new discount shopping platform called Yahoo! Warehouse. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Web portal said it has integrated its U.S. commerce operations, adding that its search capability will combine results from across all of them — Auctions, Shopping, Classifieds […]

Yahoo! Inc., continuing to roll out offerings designed to bring in revenue from something other than Internet advertising, delivered Yahoo! Mail – Business Edition, a new premium service that allows small businesses to get a professional, branded e-mail address. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo! said the product encompasses the technology of Yahoo! Mail and adds features such […]

Travelocity.com, following a similar announcement earlier this week from rival travel site Expedia, launched a new ski and snowboarding vacations area on its site and kicked it off with a promotion offering “the Ultimate Ski Trip.” Expedia launched its ski area earlier this week. Fort Worth, Texas-based Travelocity said its new ski area offers packages […]

Beating out an earlier bid by Hewlett-Packard Co., Wayne, PA-based SunGard Data Systems Inc. is expected to acquire the Availability Solutions (technology services) business of the bankrupt Comdisco Inc. for $825 million The original plan was for Comdisco to sell its technology services division to HP for $610 million. The SunGard sale agreement came at […]

A House panel has voted to scale back a proposed extension of the ban on new Internet taxes from five years to two after language supporting the efforts of some states to collect sales taxes on e-commerce transactions was struck down. The current ban expires Oct. 21. The decision, by unanimous voice vote according to […]

Beleaguered Internet retailer Cyberian Outpost, which operates the pioneer e-tail site called Outpost.com, Thursday signed a marketing pact with Audible Inc. and will make the latter’s audio services available to its 1.4 million customers. Much troubled Cyberian Outpost , its stock trading at less than 25 cents, said late last August that it would be […]

Online trust and payment services company VeriSign Inc. is teaming up with smart card and digital identity company ActivCard to bolster its public key infrastructure (PKI) service with a two-factor authentication solution. Mountain View, Calif.-based VeriSign said the integrated solution will protect enterprise network resources, assuring that only authorized users can access corporate e-mail, intranets, […]

Online auction giant eBay, which acquired person-to-person, fixed price marketplace Half.com last year, is moving to pull the Pennsylvania operation into the fold and will cut about 13 percent of the workforce. San Jose, Calif.-based eBay said last May that Half.com would be moved onto the eBay platform. Eighteen employees at Half.com will be let […]

Online car buying service CarsDirect.com scored a coup of sorts Wednesday, announcing its selection as the official online car buying service for four of the leading American Automobile Association clubs in the United States. The news was something of a bright spot in what otherwise is a down market, automotively speaking. You know the auto […]