Beth Cox

Zelerate.com, a privately held San Mateo, Calif.-based provider of open source e-commerce applications, laid off 50 of its 55 employees in a massive restructuring, but company execs say the firm is still in business. CEO Bonnie Crater told internetnews.com that “the restructuring was yesterday. We were 55 folks and we’re now at five.” Crater, who […]

Moving directly into WebMD territory and working in conjunction with Microsoft and IBM , drug company Pfizer Inc. is planning a start-up company to market software and Internet services to America’s doctors. The new company, which doesn’t have a name or a CEO yet, would be aimed at eliminating administrative paperwork hassles that tie up […]

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Internet bookstore Borders.com did a partner deal with MegaMags Inc. and launched an online magazine newsstand offering 21,000 titles. Borders.com is the online subsidiary of bookstore company Borders Group Inc. . MegaMags is a closely held Minneapolis-based B2B e-commerce company that creates custom magazine newsstands for Internet operations. Financial terms of the […]

New York City-based iVillage Inc. signed a content partnership deal with the National Women’s Health Resource Center Inc. (NWHRC), an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to educating consumers about women’s health and wellness. The deal will add content on women’s health conditions and prevention and treatment of illnesses to iVillage’s iVillageHealth.com. Financial arrangements were not disclosed. […]

Auction giant eBay Inc. , continuing its international expansion, has launched three new local sites for users in Ireland, Switzerland and New Zealand. All three country sites are charging listing and final value fees and are are extensions of larger platforms (UK, Australia and Germany), according to investment analysts at Goldman, Sachs. GS advised its […]

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Homes.com Inc., which laid off 40 percent of its staff on March 14 to conserve cash, reportedly has said its eponymous LLC unit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Homes.com Web site was functional today, however, and the company’s attorney was quoted as saying that the firm “is definitely going […]

A new industry report contends that traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are best positioned to master the economics of online retailing as e-commerce enters a new phase. And there appears to be plenty of empirical evidence to support that claim, as witness the spectacular growth of operations such as Kmart’s BlueLight.com, and the spectacular failure of operations […]

Wireless broadband networking company Proxim Inc. has called off its efforts to acquire broadband Internet equipment developer Netopia Inc., citing “current market conditions.” The termination of the merger could be a major blow to Proxim’s plans. David King, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Proxim, told investors in a conference call Wednesday that the […]

Los Angeles-based e-commerce services provider Styleclick Inc. implemented a major reorganization that includes the departure of its CEO and the naming of a replacement, the acquisition of the MVP.com technology platform and a new $15 million line of credit. The company’s co-founder, Maurizio Vecchione, resigned from his position as CEO of Styleclick and from the […]

Minneapolis-based personalization software company Net Perceptions Inc. is cutting 124 jobs, or nearly half its staff, and said it will post a first quarter loss that is worse than analysts expected. The company said it expects to report a net loss for the first quarter of between $11.5 million and $12.5 million, before the amortization […]

E-commerce services company Digital River Inc. in Minneapolis acquired Calico Commerce Inc.’s Market Maker business, allowing Digital to expands its solutions so that client companies can migrate between outsourcing and managing their e-commerce operations in-house. Digital River said the all-stock deal, valued at about $8 million, includes personnel, the Market Maker technology and clients. Digital, […]

Taking a giant step into the games industry, RealNetworks Inc. signed a deal to license the GameSpy.net multiplayer technology for use in RealArcade, a games service that the streaming media company plans to unveil to consumers later this year. The deal with technology and service provider GameSpy Industries, based in Irvine, CA, was announced today […]