Beth Cox

The overall holiday season for conventional retailers may have been less than stellar, but free shipping promotions helped to propel 2002 online holiday retail sales to an estimated 17 percent gain over the 2001 holiday period. In fact, research and analysis firm Jupiter Research says that online sales from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 are […]

Let’s see, you’re barely over that holiday hangover when what to your wondering eyes does appear but an envelope from the Internal Revenue Service, kicking off the filing season. But this year more than ever the IRS – dare we call it the e-IRS – has expanded its free, online filing options, and is even […]

Despite all the horror stories about identity theft, account hijacking and assorted other rip-offs online, American consumers are more trusting when conducting Internet transactions now than they were a year ago, according to a new study called the “Consumer Internet Barometer.” And the most dramatic change comes with a surge in trust when conducting financial […]

Despite losing nearly half its stock value in 2002, online financial services firm E*Trade Group is continuing with a string of acquisitions, this time bringing institutional broker Engleman Securities Inc. into the fold. The deal, reportedly valued at $7.25 million, is expected to enhance E*Trade’s presence on the Chicago Stock Exchange. Engleman Securities handles about […]

Florida and Florida State play out their rivalry on the football field. Ford and General Motors compete for buyers both online and in showrooms across the country. And MasterCard-Visa? Their B vs. B tussle is being played out on the cutting edge of high-tech. MasterCard recently rolled out a new clearing system that it calls […]

Sendo, the privately held British mobile phone maker that dropped Microsoft’s smart-phone software last November in favor of an operating system from Symbian, now has filed suit in the U.S. against the Redmond giant, alleging misappropriation of intellectual property. Sendo, in which Microsoft still has a minority interest, said last month that it was canceling […]

Hong Kong-based IT solutions company PacificNet Inc, in a move designed to gain presence in mainland China, is establishing a joint venture company aimed at providing value-added telecom services in Greater China. PacificNet is teaming with telecom services firm International Elite Ltd. in the equity venture that will offer call center services, telemarketing, CRM, database […]

Citing what it called “an unstable economic and geopolitical climate,” the giant tech consulting firm Accenture warned about the business outlook for 2003 while simultaneously saying its first fiscal quarter results will beat estimates. Bermuda-based Accenture said it expects earnings per share for its first fiscal quarter ending Nov. 30, 2002 to come in at […]

Apparently there’s money to be made in the online dating game, and USA Interactive, which already owns Match.com, is continuing to go after it. The e-commerce powerhouse says it plans to spend $150 million for a global online personals group based in Derby, England. The all-stock deal will see uDate.com Inc. , which operates dating […]

The B2B sector doesn’t make nearly as many headlines as it used to, but parts of it are alive and still doing deals, as witness today’s eScout acquisition of the CommerceOne.net marketplace. Lee’s Summit, Mo.-based eScout, which calls itself “The More Efficient Purchasing Company,” is acquiring all three of Commerce One.net’s lines of business — […]

San Francisco-based Listen.com, which operates the Rhapsody online music service, put a nice little holiday deal in its Christmas stocking, inking a pact with Sprint that will bring music to the ears of its FastConnect DSL customers as well as some PCS Vision subscribers. Such deals are becoming more and more common as the wave […]

A U.S. Department of Transportation investigation into the business practices of online travel site Orbitz discounts claims that the airline-backed ticketing operation is antithetical to competition in the industry and hurts consumers. Chicago-based Orbitz, developed by a consortium of five major airlines, has drawn wide-ranging criticism from competitors such as Expedia and The Sabre Group’s […]