Mark Leon

Troubled game maker Sega is still very much in play after the company failed to reach agreement this week with Sammy Corp., analysts said Thursday. The merger, proposed back in February, would have matched the maker of Sonic the Hedgehog video games with Japan’s largest maker of pachinko machines and other games of chance. The […]

Smartphone maker Orange this week said it has switched to a different set of hardware and software infrastructure vendors to service its mobile customers. Previously the British telecommunications firm had used Sun Microsystems, RISC based system to support subscriber databases. The new system consists of four, clustered, Dell PowerEdge 6650 servers running Oracle9i Database on […]

Analysts are giving high marks to USA Interactive’s acquisition of Lending Tree , calling the loan-rate aggregator’s transactional approach a fit with USAI’s e-commerce focus. Some are also questioning the timing of the purchase, which comes as LendingTree’s growth engine, the home refinancing market, is showing signs of cooling off. On Monday, the company snapped […]

USA Interactive, the owner of Ticketmaster, Expedia, Hotels.com and Match.com, will now fold online financial services into its ever-growing portfolio with the acquisition of LendingTree, an online lending company which recently added real estate to its mortage and loan services, for $734 million. Barry Diller, Chairman and CEO of USA Interactive said his company’s services […]

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — President Bush wasted no time using the momentum from his victorious campaign in Iraq to push his economic package at home. Speaking for more than 35 minutes to a crowd of workers at United Defense Industries here, Bush lobbied Congress to act on his pending economic stimulus package, which includes accelerated […]

Attention eBay sellers. If you want immediate payment for some of your goods, eBay’s PayPal payment processing division is at the ready — as long as they’re not porn-related items. The immediate payment option is available for “Buy-It-Now” fixed-price items on eBay, the company said, in an effort to promote more use of its PayPal […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 29 state attorneys general on Wednesday announced a sweeping initiative designed to get tough on Internet auction scam artists. As many as 57 cases involving criminal or civil violations are currently pending with at least 37 individuals charged and under prosecution for alleged crimes. Howard Beales, director of the […]

Online media company Yahoo! Tuesday added more content to its Platinum pay for service offering, an incremental move that raises questions about the future of Internet subscription services and broadband. New to the Platinum lineup are video and audio content from Showtime, the National Hockey League, National Geographic, Major League Soccer, and skiing filmmaker Warren […]

The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) consortium has created a forum for government agencies, organizations, and private companies to work together on global e-procurement standards. The new Electronic Procurement Standardization (EPS) Technical Committee will analyze requirements, identify gaps, and make recommendations for improving the interoperability of XML, internet based e-procurement systems. […]