InternetNews Staff

“Many analysts tend to underestimate the potential of the Internet market in developing countries,” according to Nicholas Negroponte, author of the bestseller “Being Digital” and founder of MIT’s media lab. “We will actually see e-commerce adoption happening with more speed and greater innovation in the developing world,” said Negroponte in his keynote address at IDG’s […]

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers Monday extended the registration deadline for companies hoping to compete with Network Solutions Inc. by a week. The non-profit organization said it extended the application submission deadline to April 8 after receiving complaints from prospective registrars who said an insufficient amount of technical information was available to […]

Boston-based Passkey Systems Inc., which operates a portal for convention industry hotel reservations, said it has raised $4 million in venture capital in a third round of financing. The company said it is doubling its sales volume each quarter and will process $9 million of group hotel reservations in March. Lazard Technology Partners, the venture […]

Community and commerce portal Nettaxi Inc. Monday acquired Plus Net Inc. for approximately $70 million. Plus Net is a portal site featuring a search engine, Web-based e-mail, and an e-commerce engine. Nettaxi said the acquisition will add to its ongoing expansion efforts. The Campbell, Calif., company provides news, search engines, arts and entertainment information, government […]

Prodigy Communications Corp.’s Business Solutions division Monday joined HotOffice Technologies Inc. to offer a co-branded version of the HotOffice web-based intranet service to Prodigy’s small and mid-sized business customers. By using the HotOffice software, business customers can create their own intranets. Prodigy will market and distribute HotOffice from the Prodigy Business Solutions Web site, via […]

E*TRADE Group Inc. Monday acquired ClearStation Inc., a financial Web community. ClearStation allows members to set up stock portfolios and share those with other community members. The site also carries news and has a number of links to educational resources. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. E*TRADE will operate ClearStation as a subsidiary […]

In a one-sentence statement, Amazon.com Corp. Monday announced plans to start an online auction service that will have it going up against eBay Inc. and Onsale, among others. The company also announced it was taking a 50 percent stake in Pets.com, an online pet products retailer. The company did not release any other information about […]

Pasadena, CA-based LandSafe Credit said that in conjunction with IBM, it plans a user-friendly “merged” credit report, available over the Internet to the mortgage finance industry. Using information from the nation’s three largest credit bureaus–Equifax, Experian and TransUnion–LandSafe’s proprietary merge engine creates a single credit report. Advantages of the resulting information include extreme dependability, timely […]

The Women’s Consumer Network, a new membership organization dedicated to saving women time and money via collective buying, will become a partner on Microsoft’s MSN WomenCentral. With this new relationship, millions of women will be able to join WCN at a discounted rate and take advantage of WCN’s many benefits, said Women’s Consumer Network president […]

Chicago-based Internet coupon marketer CoolSavings and General Growth Properties Inc., the nation’s second largest regional mall company, are planning an Internet coupon Web site for savings at 36 General Growth regional shopping malls across the country. The new site will allow shoppers to visit the CoolSavings Web site and download coupons to be redeemed for […]

Toronto-based Chapters Internet said it has signed an exclusive agreement with ClickThrough Interactive to become the online book retailer of choice for ClickThrough’s ad network of 65 Canadian Web sites. The deal is the first of its kind between a Canadian e-commerce company and a Web site network, Chapters said. Financial specifics were not disclosed. […]

The question of who owns the title of the Earth’s cheapest bookstore may soon be answered, with Friday’s launch of ClickTheButton.com, Inc.’s free application that enables users to compare book prices of rival online bookstores. The tool allows users to compare prices at Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and Booksamillion.com. With the click of a corner screen icon, […]