Paul Nicholls

mySimon Inc. Monday debuted a shopaholic’s dream: a search engine capable of comparing prices from thousands of online merchants in real-time and delivering information on millions of products. The engine currently scours more than 800 unique Web merchants in categories including computers, electronics, sporting goods, collectibles and fashion. It offers a list of sites selling […]

Communications manufacturer VTEL Friday unveiled three new products enabling businesses to conduct high-quality video conferencing sessions over intranets and the Internet. line. MCS/IP and Gateway are local area network servers designed to enable businesses to conduct multipoint, multimedia conferencing. The company’s Gatekeeper application works in conjunction with the conferencing system to control access and bandwidth […]

Primedia Ltd. formed a joint venture with Datatec Ltd., a computer network company, to sell goods and services electronically to broaden its revenue base. Both companies are based in South Africa. The new company, to be called Metropolis Transactive Holdings Ltd., will start with five established businesses of Primedia: Mead & McGrouther, a reference book […]

E-Commerce company and software provider Open Market Inc. is laying off 20 percent of its staff in an effort to recover from dismal third quarter results. A company spokeswoman confirmed Friday that approximately 100 of the company’s 480-person staff will lose their jobs in the realignment. Open Market on Friday posted a third-quarter loss of […]

CommerceNet in Palo Alto, CA, the industry consortium for e-commerce companies, formed a strategic alliance with Ontology.org, identifying knowledge architecture as a central issue for next- generation Internet commerce. Ontology.org, founded by Computer Sciences Corp. in May, is working with CommerceNet to address “the formation and substainability of large Internet trading groups.” Ontology is a […]

CYBERplex Inc. launched an online bookstore called ChaptersGLOBE.com, in conjunction with Canada’s largest bookseller, Chapters Inc., and the Toronto Globe and Mail. The store has a focus on Canadian authors. “ChaptersGLOBE.com represents what the shopping experience should be on the Internet and it sets a new precedent for Canadian online retailing,” said Dean Hopkins, president […]

NetResults Corp. licensed its ProShop software for business-to-business e-commerce applications to Staples Inc., national retailer of office supplies. Staples will use ProShop to create and operate individual stores for its corporate customers to purchase Staples products via the Web. Financial arrangements were not disclosed. Each store will be tailored to the unique requirements of the […]

FairMarket Inc., a business-to-business auction site, said it will host customized auctions for businesses that want to provide auction services to their Web users. The company intends to enable these businesses to customize the auction software with their own Web site’s look and feel, while capitalizing on the capabilities of FairMarket’s software. Two types of […]

Buyer’s Index, a search engine for online shoppers, teamed up with two consumer protection organizations to give buyers an instant view of who’s been naughty and who’s been nice. “This is a big step toward popularizing electronic commerce,” said Christopher MacPhail, creator of the Buyer’s Index search engine. “Buyers want to know which merchants they […]

A new e-commerce study shows that those who have yet to make purchases online are still hesitant about such transactions, citing pricing, not payment security, as a primary concern. The study from Jupiter Communications and NFO Interactive showed that 35% of the online population purchased a product or service in the last year and were […]

Retek Information Systems in Minneapolis, a business unit of HNC Software Inc., recently delivered its eCommerce Solution. The solution is composed of the Retek Enterprise Solution, the Oracle Internet Commerce Server, and Aptex SelectCast intelligent server software. The new solution is available to traditional retailers who wish to expand into the Internet consumer direct market, […]

Eight financial institutions came together Wednesday in a global effort aimed at removing many of the current barriers hampering the spread of business-to-business electronic commerce. ABN AMRO, Bank of America, Bankers Trust, Barclays Bank, Chase Manhattan, Citibank, Deutsche Bank and Hypo Vereinsbank are working with CertCo Inc. to form a global company intended to ensure […]