Elizabeth Clampet

To tap into the growth of Internet telephony, Net2Phone Inc. Wednesday formed a partnership with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., parent of electronics maker Panasonic, to provide Internet-based phone service with consumer telephones. Panasonic will integrate Net2Phone’s (NTOP) One Touch voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service into its line of phones. The goal is to create […]

In an attempt to reach the growing open source community, Linux software distributor VA Linux Systems Tuesday launched a suite of hosting and communication tools. VA Linux (LNUX) will expand into the application service provider industry with SourceForge, a free service for those developing open source projects. It hosts a range of tools and applications […]

Although the rollover to the year 2000 was overall a non-event, some companies were bitten by the Y2K bug, including a few users of InfoPop Corp.’s Ultimate Bulletin Board (UBB). Ultimate BBS provides message board technology to more than 100,000 Web sites including Prodigy and Warner Brothers online. Like most companies preparing for Y2K, most […]

Microsoft Corp. extended its investment arm Thursday by injecting $20 million into enterprise e-mail provider CommTouch Software Inc.. Microsoft (MSFT) will purchase 707,964 shares of CommTouch (CTCH) stock at $28.25. The investment equals a 4.7 percent stake in the firm, which produces e-mail systems for corporate clients. In addition to the investment, the two companies […]

Online music resource MP3.com, Inc. Wednesday took steps to empower its membership by acquiring event-planning Web site seeUthere.com for approximately $162 million in stock. seeUthere.com provides tools to manage all aspects of an event including online ticketing, customized event Web sites, automated invitation and RSVP management and instant online reports that monitor ticket sales and […]

Online electronics retailer etown.com Tuesday received $22 million in second round of financing, led by BestBuy.com, the online arm of Best Buy Co., Inc. and ZDNet. BestBuy.com (BBY) and ZDNet (ZDZ) were joined by investors including Sands Brothers, Gruber & McBaine Capital Management, Bedford Oak Partners, LP, and Valor Capital Management, LP. With this round […]

Adding to its slew of recent acquisitions, RMI.NET, Inc. Tuesday purchased business-to-business Web site developer AIS Network Corp. for $3.65 million in stock. AIS Network, a privately held commerce solutions provider, offers dedicated Internet access; Web site development and hosting; e-commerce services; application hosting and Internet marketing and consulting. RMI.NET (RMII), formerly Rocky Mountain Internet, […]

Mozilla.org this week released a preview of its latest browser which will be incorporated into the next version of Netscape’s browser suite. The group said the browser, an open source version of Netscape’s Communicator 5.0, features an instant messaging tool that may compete with America Online Inc. (AOL) and Microsoft’s (MSFT) messaging clients. Netscape was […]

Merrill Lynch Wednesday made an undisclosed investment into financial site Multex.com and the two expanded a partnership to develop Merrill Lynch’s online activities. Merrill Lynch (MER)will acquire a minority equity stake in Multex.com and transfer to Multex.com (MLTX) proprietary research technologies developed by Merrill Lynch. The two firms will jointly develop a platform for real-time […]

Financial site TheStreet.com Inc. Wednesday made a move to broaden its online resources with the purchase of ipoPros.com. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. ipoPros.com is a subscription-based site offering research, ratings, data and news about initial and secondary stock offerings. TheStreet.com (TSCM) will incorporate ipoPros.com into its network, though the ipoPros.com site will […]

Chalking up its second acquisition in as many days, e-commerce player ShopNow.com Inc. did some shopping of its own Tuesday, buying business-to-business trading company Ubarter.com Inc., a business-to-business barter firm, for about $45 million in stock. ShopNow (SPNW) will expand into the B2B space with the purchase, the company said. Ubarter.com (UBTR) oversees the transaction […]

Claiming that priceline.com Inc. may not own the patent it is fighting to protect, Microsoft’s Expedia, Inc. travel service this week attempted to dismiss the lawsuit priceline filed against it in October. Priceline (PCLN), which operates the patented “name-your-own-price” travel service, filed a lawsuit in October in federal court alleging that Expedia (EXPE) too closely […]