Erin Joyce

With a creditors’ deadline looming, debt-saddled Internet services firm Genuity is shopping some or all of its business to Level 3 Communications, internetnews.com has learned. An announcement could come as soon as tomorrow. A deal between the infrastructure companies could speed the pace of consolidation in the troubled telecommunications industry and give Level 3 a […]

Merrill Lynch media analyst Jessica Reif Cohen is raising concerns again about subscriber growth at AOL Time Warner’s flagship ISP. In the process, her report is helping to fan more chatter about whether AOL will be cast out of the corporate fold. With AOL’s drop in advertising revenues over the past two years well documented, […]

Interactive software maker Liberate Technologies is pitching new software products that help cable operators manage what, in some cases, are half-built digital media delivery platforms. Stung by a big drop in digital broadcasting investments by the cash-crunched cable and satellite industries, the interactive television player is responding with products to help fill delivery gaps. The […]

Tech research firm IDC has put into numbers what information technology vendors are already feeling: the market for IT services is having a much tougher year than forecasts had pegged. IDC lowered its 2002 worldwide IT services growth expectations by 3.9 percentage points to 6.7 percent growth instead of the double digit rate it had […]

As America Online employees burn the midnight oil before the release of AOL v. 8.0 and tweak an upcoming discount shopping service, a renewed sense of resolve is taking hold at the ISP. After a year of enduring tribulations — including plummeting advertising revenues, shareholders outraged over AOL’s slumping price, regulatory probes of its accounting, […]

NEW YORK — Members rule. Forget for a moment the federal investigations into accounting practices at America Online, the questions about its broadband strategy, slowing subscriber growth and reports of corporate infighting. Think members. It is the ISP’s members who are leading the company out of its struggles by inspiring a new form of cable-television-style […]

AOL Time Warner’s Netscape Communications browser division has lost an appeal in a lawsuit accusing it of electronic eavesdropping with “cookies” , which it had used with its free software “SmartDownload” feature. The ruling by the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which also draws a distinction between the structure of online and offline contractual […]

(Updates to clarify first reference to Jack Grubman in fifth paragraph) In an unprecedented action, New York’s Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has sued five former and current executives of telecommunications companies to return $1.5 billion they allegedly gleaned from “phony stock ratings.” The action is the latest in Spitzer’s ongoing investigations into whether Wall Street […]

Web audience measurement firm Nielsen//NetRatings is expanding its scope of online consumer research in an effort to keep advertisers abreast of an exploding universe of digital media devices. Instant messaging, Web phones, media players, file-sharing services and online games are just a few of the digital media applications that will be included in the newly-announced […]

If Disney were to merge its ABC News division with cable news channel CNN’s operations — or even launch a joint venture — would the online properties be merged too? Some analysts answer by suggesting caution about blending two news brands online. Others say full steam ahead. Company officials say no comment. Beyond confirming again […]

Video-on-demand company Intertainer has filed suit against three major movie studios, accusing them of engaging in anti-trust violations in an attempt to protect their competing VoD venture. The complaint charges that the film units of AOL Time Warner , Vivendi Universal and Sony conspired to boost prices on Intertainment’s movie licensing deals with them in […]

Online advertising/technology provider DoubleClick is eying new markets in the offline marketing realm with its $12.9 million cash purchase of Protagona, a UK-based software company. DoubleClick said it would acquire all outstanding shares of Protagona, which makes marketing automation software tools that help track the best performing channels deployed in campaigns. The New York-based DoubleClick […]