InternetNews Staff

InChorus Trying to Salvage Itself Struggling rich media e-mail marketer inChorus.com will stay afloat for at least a while longer, thanks to a $5 million line of credit from its investment bankers, whom the firm declined to name. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based inChorus said the offer of credit came after the bankers were briefed on […]

After last week’s announcement that the company would be scaling back its consumer divisions, Infospace announced last night that it has laid off 250 employees in an effort to best capitalize on the company’s business opportunities in its high growth areas such as wireless, merchant and broadband. The layoffs represent approximately 21% of the Bellevue-based […]

Online wireless play Upoc has closed an $18 million B round of funding, topping the $12 million it was seeking in September. Patricof & Co.Ventures, Inc. and Advent International were joined in the round by Tribune Ventures and 550 Digital Media Ventures, a Sony Group company. Allen & Company and Arts Alliance, which took part […]

An interactive game portal that enables wireless and desktop users to play against each was launched Monday by Scandinavian vendor UDS. One of the games available at the site is called e.g., which the vendor claims is the first game in which users of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)-enabled devices can play against desktop browser users. […]

[Berlin, GERMANY] Six months after its foundation, the Berlin company Jamba! AG is fighting for leadership of the market for Internet mobile phone content. Even though the fast UMTS phones won’t arrive until 2002 at the soonest, co-founder and board member Alexander Samwer told the German press agency dpa, “I think that the market is […]

Messaging services provider Mail.com, Inc. , is swapping out some debt service as it works to achieve profitability. In a note exchange agreement, the company said it would issue $11.7 million of 10 percent senior convertible notes due in five years. The notes, non-callable for three years, are in exchange for the cancellation of $38.98 […]

Microsoft announced product names today for the upcoming new Windows OS and Office desktop applications suite. Windows, which has been code-named “Whistler” up until this point, will become Windows XP, and Office will become Office XP. According to officials at Microsoft, the XP name is short for “experience.” “These breakthrough versions of Windows and Office […]

In response to longstanding complaints over customer support from the Alley’s hi-tech community, Verizon announced Friday that it has launched an New York-based advocate’s office as part of a joint effort with the New York Software Industry Association (NYSIA). The telecom said the joint effort would lead to improvements in its high-speed Internet services. Verizon […]

With the NASDAQ only making a slow recovery, the stock options that workers once found so lucrative, simply don’t have the same pull anymore. Executives at RealNetworks, Inc., a company whose stock has fallen from a 52-week high of 96 to today’s value of around nine, today announced that its Board of Directors has approved […]

Qualcomm Wednesday said it has created an open platform for developing applications for wireless phones. The company said its Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) will work for phones that use Qualcomm’s Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) integrated circuits, a technology that Qualcomm has championed. The company said the platform will simplify application development for […]

Wearable computing vendor Xybernaut said Wednesday it is releasing a version of its Mobile Assistant wearable computer that incorporates speech technology from vendor Conversay in what the companies claim is the first speech-driven wearable computer. Wearable computers are already in use, typically in industrial situations in which the user must move around, such as warehouses […]

New York-based software firm Sphera Corporation has raised $13.5 million in a second round of funding led by Gemini Capital Ventures. Jerusalem Venture Partners, Reuters Greenhouse Fund and CSK Venture Capital also participated in the funding round. Sphera, which employs 70 people at locations in Silicon Alley, Washington D.C. Israel and the U.K, said the […]