Mark Berniker

Although they all have different policies to combat the problem, AOL Time Warner , Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo announced on Monday that they plan to “join forces against spam.” In a joint statement, the three companies that are traditionally bitter rivals said they “will initiate an open dialogue that will include organizations across this industry […]

ScanSoft Inc. has expanded its presence in the speech recognition software market with its acquisition of SpeechWorks International Inc. in a stock deal worth close to $132 million. Analysts say the deal between the Boston-area companies strengthens ScanSoft’s place in the market for translating human voice commands into text on the computer screen. But the […]

America Online is taking its instant messaging technology from the desktop to a variety of devices based on the Symbian wireless operating system. Symbian and America Online say they will work together on providing a variety of wireless media and messaging services on next generation smart phones based on Symbian’s operating system. America Online said […]

E-Commerce hosting company Digital River is positioning for a slice of online subscription renewals with a new e-subscriptions service aimed at content providers and publishers. The company calls the new service an “outsourced subscription management solution,” geared for publishers looking to use the Web to sign up new subscribers, while at the same time saving […]

With the high-profile launch of its Windows Server 2003 operating system rapidly approaching, Microsoft moved to lessen restrictions and fees it charges competitors to see the innards of the server operating system. In a company statement, Microsoft said: “in compliance with the settlement agreement and final judgment of the Court, Microsoft has made available on […]

Sony Corp. said it is investing $1.7 billion in its new “Cell” processor, which is expected to be the engine behind PlayStation 3 and a raft of other future Sony electronic products. Sony is saying the new chip will be a thousand times more powerful than the processor that runs Sony’s PlayStation 2 gaming system. […]

Online travel is getting political, as opponents try to vilify Orbitz. But despite a travel lobby group applauding a Congressional objection to what it says props up the online travel venture with taxpayer money, the venture continues to grow in an extremely challenging travel market. On the heels of Congress passing legislation to provide financial […]

Even though global IT spending has dropped sharply, Germany’s SAP said Thursday its financial results for the first quarter were impressive, despite falling short of expectations. The company is also maintaining its previous forecast of continued growth for the rest of 2003, but wouldn’t pin a specific figure on its rosy expectations. SAP’s operating profit […]

Online movie site movielink has signed a deal with entertainment site Hollywood.com to offer a co-branded broadband film download service. The new service will reside on Hollywood.com’s Web site, and is part of Movielink’s strategy to diversify its movie content delivery options. Movielink currently offers customers the opportunity to download full-length digital copies of movies […]

Networking software maker Novell , a longtime advocate of proprietary systems, is the latest company to embrace open standards and technological backing for Linux , the open-source operating system. Novell detailed its planned technological migration of its NetWare network operating system at its annual “BrainShare” user and partner conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Novell […]

Worldcom, notorious for massive corporate fraud, is trying to turn over a new leaf coming to agreement with its creditors on a revised bankruptcy reorganization plan. The company announced a new reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The company said it would be permanently changing its name […]

Movielink, a joint venture of five Hollywood movies studios, is facing a patent infringement lawsuit from USA Video over video-on-demand technology. USA Video Technology filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware against Movielink claiming the venture violated its patent for online movie delivery. Back in July 1992, USA Video […]