Beth Cox

The name-your-own price mortgage licensee of Priceline.com got a boost today when HomeSeekers.com signed a deal making it the preferred online mortgage provider for HomeSeekers.com and about 30,000 local Realtor sites that it serves around the United States. Jacksonville, Fla.-based Pricelinemortgage is a subsidiary of First Alliance Bank and is a royalty-based licensee of priceline.com. […]

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, a unit of Paris-based communications equipment maker Alcatel said it plans to buy the CallPath computer telephony assets of IBM Corp. for an undisclosed sum. CallPath is telephony software that helps integrates voice and data communications in multimedia customer contact centers. Genesys and IBM also are expanding their existing relationship and said […]

Airline-backed travel site Orbitz Thursday tapped San Francisco-based marketing technology company Mediaplex Inc. to use its proprietary messaging technology to include updated, real-time, flight information within banner advertisements. Orbitz will also take advantage of Mediaplex’s campaign management services, including real-time reporting and optimization. Financial arrangements were not disclosed for the multi-year deal. Mediaplex says its […]

A new report, urging businesses to improve their reverse logistics, says that the value of returned merchandise purchased online is expected to reach an estimated $5.8 billion in 2005, representing 90 million items. The Jupiter Media Metrix research report contends that as the volume of returns increases, retailers who concentrate solely on improving the returns […]

Proving that they have a sense of humor even in difficult times, struggling computer e-tailer Cyberian Outpost Inc. said today that its spokes-gerbil has returned, just in time to help promote a new free ground shipping initiative. His return comes as the company prepares to celebrate its sixth birthday today. Outpost said the gerbil “has […]

Sun Microsystems Inc. is teaming with B2B software company i2 Technologies Inc. for joint engineering, sales, support and marketing for next-generation CRM products. Customer relationship management solutions developed under this alliance are intended to enable iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions, a Sun-Netscape Alliance operation, and Dallas-based i2 software to be interoperable on the Sun platform. Palo Alto, […]

Chicago-based Internet grocer Peapod Inc., in a move that further hones in on the money-making aspects of its business, is getting rid of its “Peapod Packages” delivery obligations outside of its core market area. Privately held North Brunswick, N.J.-based Netgrocer, a nationwide online grocery retailer that delivers via FedEx, will offer its national pack and […]

Priceline.com shares were on the rise again as the turn-around company replaced its CEO with its chairman, Richard S. Braddock, and reiterated that it expects to reach pro forma operating profitability in the second quarter. The board of the Norwalk, CT-based name-your-own price e-commerce company replaced Daniel H. Schulman, priceline.com’s prior president and chief executive […]

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Yahoo! rolled out an enhanced version of its Yahoo! Messenger service that allows users to make reduced-rate international telephone calls from their PCs. Users of the previous version were able to dial domestically using their personal computers, for 2 cents a minute. Rates for international calls were not disclosed, but a Yahoo! […]

Campbell, Calif.-based online relationship marketing company Talk City Marketing Group signed financial information firm Bloomberg L.P. as a new client and said it will change its name to LiveWorld Inc. The name change “reflects the company’s 100 percent focus on its core fee-for-services business,” LiveWorld said. LiveWorld said that it will provide a range of […]

They’re going to be winning a little more often, but pocketing less at iWon.com as the loyalty portal shrinks its cash prize structure thanks to the “difficult economy.” A notice on the Web site headlined “Announcing Changes to the iWon Prize Structure” talks about feedback from users who want more prizes. But it goes on […]

New York City-based MLB Advanced Media LP (MLBAM), an interactive media and Internet company that runs mlb.com, launched a set of 30 online stores, one for each Major League team Web site. The stores, which offer more than 6,000 Major League Baseball product SKUs, were built and will be managed by Minneapolis-based e-commerce services provider […]