Maura Ginty

In an effort to prevent the site crashes which have plagued the auction site, eBay, Inc. Friday announced that it will outsource its backend Internet technology to AboveNet Communications and Exodus Communications. eBay (EBAY) will outsource its Web servers, database servers and Internet routers as well as increasings its its network bandwidth via its relationships […]

Leading online retailer Amazon.com Friday added Wish List, a gift registry system intended to ease shopper’s confusion and pressure to find the perfect holiday gift. The company says it introduced the registry in response to customer requests made during the last holiday season. Amazon (AMZN) is banking on the likelihood that, with 12 million shoppers […]

Adding direct lending to its online mortgage comparison service, Intuit Inc. Thursday acquired Rock Financial Corp. for $370 million in an all-stock deal. Rock Financial Corp.’s online mortgage site RockLoans.com will join Intuit’s QuickenMortgage service. The purchase will allow Intuit (INTU) to offer online home mortgage applications in every state in the U.S., and both […]

Bell Atlantic Thursday bought $550 million in fiber optic network infrastructure from Metromedia Fiber Network, Inc. and invested another $1.7 billion to take up to a 19 percent stake in the company. Under the terms of the first deal, Metromedia (MFNX) will offer dark fiber infrastructure over a 20-year period. Bell Atlantic will also receive […]

Leading Israeli ISP Internet Gold Wednesday inked a deal with Microsoft Corp. to create a MSN Israel portal and Hebrew-language Web search service. The two companies will form joint venture to run the portal site, with Internet Gold (IGLD) owning .2 percent more than Microsoft (MSFT) to hold the majority share of the company equity. […]

Linus Torvalds told a packed house on Wedneday that the future of operating systems will follow the current Internet trend of personalization and customization. Torvalds, speaking at Internet World, compared the open source experience to tinkering with a car engine. While “some people just don’t like tinkering with their cars,” he said that many will […]

Building on its e-commerce offerings, Telstra rolled out the Open Commerce Platform (OCP), a technology architecture which aims to improve the business-to-business transaction process. The platform is Telstra’s first e-commerce product targeting the U.S. market, and is expected to become available this month. OCP provides transaction services and messaging exchanges to facilitate vendor relationships, with […]

UK bank Halifax has lept into several up-and-coming Internet trends, launching an online brokerage, a free ISP service, and online banking all in the same week. The bank claims that its Halifax ShareXpress is offering the most competitively priced online trading service in the UK market, at a flat fee of £5 ($8) until January […]

Winstar Tuesday signed a $300 million deal with Metromedia Fiber Network to buy dark fiber capacity in 38 states across the United States and three European markets. WinStar will pay Metromedia (MFNX) the sum over the next 20 years. The company expects the fiber purchase to expand its local and global presence with the addition […]

Making its debut on the day Japan deregulated its brokerage commission rates, E*Trade Group Friday launched an E*Trade Japan online brokerage service. The site is the sixth international property which E*Trade (EGRP) has added to its increasingly global network. Internet industry leader Softbank Corp. joins E*Trade in a joint venture which was established last year […]

Internet auctioneer eBay Inc. announced plans to open 50 regional Web sites by the end of this year, aiming for an audience that might usually head for the local newspaper’s classified ads. eBay (EBAY) will launch the smaller sites in metropolitan areas throughout the U.S., according to The Wall Street Journal, using eBay’s Los Angeles […]

CMGI Inc. continued to display its appetite for Internet advertising companies Thursday spending $690 million on Flycast Communications Corp. The buy marks its third advertising-related purchase in 10 days. CMGI will issue .4738 of its shares for every share of Flycast (FCST). The stock deal is expected to close in January 2000. CMGI also holds […]