Nicholas Carlson

CheckFree is on a shopping spree. The online payment and processing company today announced its second acquisition of 2007, this time Corillian Corporation, a provider of online banking platforms for financial services firms. The stock purchase price works out to about $245 million. CheckFree said the Corillian addition would enable a tighter integration of electronic […]

Viacom’s MTV Networks will lay off 250 employees this week as the entertainment property reallocates resources toward interactive properties and new networks. “Our industry is at an inflection point and many companies are going through the process of adapting their business models and organizations to the new realities,” MTV Networks Chief Executive Judy McGrath said […]

Google’s YouTube and a company called Live Digital will offer no refuge to users who uploaded pirated copies of Fox Television’s “24” and “The Simpsons” onto their video platforms. In an e-mail to internetnews.com, a 20th Century Fox Television spokesperson said that Google and Live Digital complied with subpoenas issued by the U.S. District Court […]

Online financial portal Zecco.com will launch zero commission IRA accounts on Monday, internetnews.com has learned. One industry watcher calls the move a “no-brainer” and expects the competition to soon follow suit. The zero commission IRAs come just as the online financial industry finished responding from Zecco’s last splashy move when the site announced free online […]

Cisco Systems today bought privately held social-networking vendor Five Across, lending a hand to companies wanting to go the user-generated route. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. San Francisco-based Five Across was founded in 2003 by former Apple director of engineering Glenn Reid. The company’s first products were aimed at the business instant […]

Admit it, when you heard Google bought YouTube for $1.5 billion last fall, you considered reevaluating your career choice. If you can do that, yesterday’s Google filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might peak your interest. It’s now very clear who earned shares of that billion-plus and just how much in dollars it […]

Amazon and TiVo claimed their own spot in the digital living room today. The e-commerce giant and the digital video service provider announced Amazon Unbox on Tivo. The soon-to-be-launched service, a new feature of Amazon Unbox, will allow TiVo subscribers to rent and purchase movies and television shows from studios and networks, including CBS, Fox […]

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is calling for music labels to stop selling music encrypted with digital rights management software (DRM). It’s a drastic reversal from a position Apple declared in public statements less then a year ago. “Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats,” Jobs said in […]

Wal-Mart launched a new video download service today, putting the company in direct competition with Apple and its iTunes store. Wal-Mart’s beta service includes more than 3,000 movie and TV titles for view on PCs, laptops and portable media players. All the major studios are on board and new movie releases will be available for […]

The Super Bowl is over, and advertisers were probably happy to hear that more than 90 million viewers tuned in. The Indianapolis Colts weren’t the only winners that day. And Bears quarterback Rex Grossman had some commercial company in the gaffe arena. Certainly Super Bowl broadcaster CBS cashed in. This year, advertisers paid as much […]

Yahoo will soon find out if it stands a chance against Google in a competition for search marketing dollars. Yahoo’s new search marketing rankings model finally goes live today, and it shouldn’t take very long to find out if it will make a difference. The new rankings model, part of Yahoo’s new advertising system, code-named […]

Super Bowl ads may start their lives in front of 90 million viewers this Sunday, but advertisers are also paying as much as $2.6 million for 30-second spots they hope will kick off viral Internet campaigns. And there’s evidence to show their plan will work. But will that viral success be worth losing control of […]