Beth Cox

Nampa, Idaho-based Micron Electronics Inc. is in essence paying to make its PC business go away — in a “sale” to privately held Gores Technology Group. Gores, an acquisition and turnaround management company, will assume the assets and the liabilities of Micron’s PC business, and gets a $70 million cash contribution to working capital from […]

Priceline.com Inc. shares soared almost 36 percent today after Goldman Sachs analysts upgraded the stock to “market outperform,” saying that the troubled company has “right-sized” the business, improved customer service and stabilized its growth. The Norwalk, Conn.-based company, reporting shortly after the market closed Tuesday, posted a pro forma net loss for the first quarter […]

Ailing B2B solutions provider Ariba Inc. named a new CEO, added Softbank Corp. CEO Masayoshi Son to its board of directors and launched an e-learning initiative “for customers, partners and employees to learn about Ariba’s … solutions.” The Mountain View, Calif.-based company, which several weeks ago slashed its workforce by a third and scrapped a […]

Mountain View, Calif.-based E-Stamp Corp., which said last November it would exit the Internet postage business, is selling its patents and other intellectual property rights as well as the E-Stamp name and E-Stamp.com domain to former rival Stamps.com. Last week E-Stamp moved to jettison its transportation management solutions business and get into the corporate e-learning […]

Dallas-based online and print directory company WorldPages.com Inc. is being acquired by privately held TransWestern Publishing Co. in a $215 million stock deal that puts a 36 percent premium on WorldPages shares. San Diego, Calif.-based TransWestern, an independent telephone directory publisher with 270 community-oriented telephone directories in 18 states, gains a significant online presence as […]

Its stock down to 20 cents a share, ailing Internet grocer Webvan Group Inc. Thursday said it is, in essence, seeking an angel with about $25 million to invest in order for the company to pursue a fully funded business plan. Webvan, which just posted a pro forma net loss for the first quarter of […]

San Francisco-based MobShop scored a coup as Commerce One Inc. (Nasdaq:CMRC) signed a pact making the demand-aggregation technology company a business service provider (BSP) for Commerce One e-marketplaces. The deal allows MobShop to offer its real-time demand aggregation technology to current and future Commerce One-powered e-marketplace customers. Financial arrangements were not disclosed. MobShop’s software, offered […]

Citing strong sales in electronics and in its overseas efforts, Amazon.com Inc. nearly beat its own forecast of several weeks ago, posting first quarter net sales of $700.4 million, up 22 percent. Pro forma operating loss was $49 million or 21 cents per share, compared with a pro forma operating loss of $99 million or […]

Dancing in the aisles they’re not, but Chicago-based Internet grocery operation Peapod said it attained operating profitability for March in its Chicago market. The bad news was that the company also reported a first quarter net loss of $15.5 million or 86 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $12.7 million or 70 […]

B2B e-marketplace solutions provider Commerce One Inc. delivered MarketWise, a new suite of packaged consulting services that will assist e-marketplace operators to optimize performance from initial business strategy through deployment and expansion. Offered through Commerce One Global Services, MarketWise is composed of five distinct phases: Assess, Design, Build, Deploy and Perform. Each phase is supported […]

Microsoft Corp. and General Electric’s NBC said they will merge the MSN MoneyCentral site and CNBC.com, “creating a personal finance powerhouse” distributed exclusively through MSN on the Internet. The move follows NBC’s decision April 9 to shut down its online play, NBCi. Financial arrangements were not disclosed, but the multiyear agreement calls for MSN to […]

The Federal Trade Commission said operators of three Web sites have signed settlement agreements in a suit that charged they violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The settlements came on the first anniversary of the effective date of the law. The FTC charged Monarch Services Inc. and Girls Life Inc., operators of www.girlslife.com; Bigmailbox.com […]