InternetNews Staff

America Online, Inc. and Gemstar International Group Ltd. Tuesday said they entered into long-term licensing agreement under which AOL will use Gemstar’s technology and intellectual property to develop and deploy electronic programming guides for AOL TV. An AOL spokesperson declined to give financial terms and the specific length of the contract, calling it “a multi-year” […]

The New York Times Company Monday separated its Internet holdings into its own entity, Times Co. Digital, designed to facilitate the growth of its Web companies. The firm will consist of The New York Times Co.’s nearly 50 Web sites, including The New York Times on the Web, boston.com and New York Today, as well […]

San Francisco-based Web site directory operation Looksmart signed a long-term strategic partnership and equity deal with Guthy-Renker, a television direct response marketing company, to expand their e-commerce offerings. Under the agreement, Guthy-Renker has taken an unspecified equity position in Looksmart, a privately held Internet company. In exchange, Looksmart has acquired certain unspecified assets of Guthy-Renker’s […]

Laguna Hills, CA-based Rbid.com Inc launched Rbid.com Auction and began a national marketing and advertising campaign to promote it. The company said the launch of the Rbid Auction house allows hundreds of merchants from its Rmall as well as individuals to list an unlimited number of products with photos on a no up-front fee basis. […]

Prodigy Communications Corp. and Bell Atlantic Monday teamed to provide high-speed Digital Subscriber Line access for Prodigy residence and business customers in Bell Atlantic’s service area. The pact is Prodigy’s first foray into providing nationwide DSL for its users, who will be able to access the Internet via Bell Atlantic’s Infospeed DSL service within the […]

America Online Inc. is suing instant messaging provider Tribal Voice over its use of the term ‘buddy list,’ used in conjunction with the company’s instant-chat software PowWow. AOL filed the complaint against Scotts Valley-Calif.-based Tribal Voice earlier this month in U.S. District Court in northern California. AOL claims Tribal Voice’s use of ‘buddy list,’ is […]

Seattle-based Wireless Dimension, a Web retailer of wireless phones, service plans and accessories and parent company Nth Dimension Corp., changed their product and corporate identities to Point.com and Point.com Inc., respectively. “The Point.com brand name better communicates our core consumer benefit of helping consumers quickly and easily ‘get to the point’ of a smart wireless […]

Music retailer CDnow launched its next-generation music store, offering expanded music departments and more daily music news reports. The company added allstar daily news, led by allstar Senior Editor Carrie Borzillo. Grammy award-winning writer and executive editor Anthony DeCurtis and editorial director John Bitzer head CDnow’s staff of music journalists, providing breaking news, interviews and […]

The Prodigy Business Solutions Group (PGSG) and Chicago-based Orbit Commerce launched the Prodigy Commerce Center , offering e-commerce services to small business customers nationwide. “Most small-business owners face three major roadblocks to taking their business online–time, cost and complexity. We’ve eliminated them all,” said Paul Reilly, president and CEO of Orbit Commerce. “Using Orbit’s seamless […]

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy is highly critical of the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Final Report on the domain naming registrar system called for by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The report was issued in advance of ICANN’s board meeting, set for May 27 in Berlin. The SBA […]

Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) Thursday said that e-commerce, particularly the use of technology for trading, is a serious area of concern for the company’s plans in India. “The disintermediation process brought about by the Internet raises basic questions as to what the existing players ought to do to survive and thrive,” according to PWC partner […]

Sunnyvale, CA-based eGain, a provider of customer service infrastructure for e-commerce, acquired New York-based Sitebridge Corp., a provider of real-time customer service applications. With the acquisition, eGain said it extends its market leadership by adding Web collaboration, telephone call back, interactive messaging, and voice IP to its e-mail management system. Financial terms of the deal […]