Ryan Naraine

In what is considered a major shift in strategy, Voice Over Internet Protocol (Vo-IP) telephony play Net2Phone Inc. announced it plans to stop offering free PC-to-phone calls. However, PC-to-PC calls would still be free. In a conference call with investors, Net2Phone’s CEO Howie Balter said the company will gradually wind down free PC-to-phone services in […]

With widening third quarter losses, dwindling revenues and a depressed stock price, Alley design shop K2 Digital, Inc. was badly in need of a fresh infusion of capital to keep operations afloat. On Tuesday, Chicago-based investment fund Fusion Capital emerged as K2 Digital’s white knight, immediately injecting $6 million in a two-part equity financing deal […]

Silicon Alley online advertising firm 24/7 Media said it expects to post charges of $150 million to $157 million in the fourth quarter. However, the company projected it would still meet its own earnings estimates for the critical fourth quarter of 2000. 24/7 Media, which laid off 200 employees in a bid to save some […]

In a move aimed at acquiring new customers, Silicon Alley retailer for designer fashions and home furnishings Bluefly Inc. Tuesday announced a deal with Yahoo! to appear in its Shopping channel and in its search results. The deal calls for Bluefly to receive graphic merchant links within Yahoo! Shopping and be featured throughout the Apparel, […]

Seattle-based Rival Networks, which runs the Rivals.com network of sports channels, has shut down ad sales offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, laying off 12 employees in the process. Rivals Network said it would outsource its advertising sales to Phase2Media, the Silicon Alley advertising and marketing shop known for its hands-on […]

Silicon Alley online recruitment firm HotJobs.com has unleashed a group of guerilla marketers onto the streets of Seattle as part of a two-week beta testing campaign. HotJobs director of advertising and marketing Mark Karasu told atNewYork, a sister publication to Internet Advertising Report, that the campaign was created by guerilla marketing specialists Eisnor Interactive. He […]

Interactive television firm RespondTV is venturing into the tricky world of free sample distribution, partnering with San Francisco-based FreeSamples.com in a direct marketing pitch to users of its Internet-based set top boxes. It is the first such alliance between an interactive media play and a product sampling firm and both companies are touting the directness […]

As further evidence that online ad firms are jumping full speed into the wireless space, New York-based 24/7 Media today announced an exclusive deal to sell ads on mobile entertainment firm Indiqu’s wireless properties. Financial terms of the pact were not disclosed, and the companies did not say who would serve the ads. Under the […]

Location-based wireless marketing and content play Sonata Monday confirmed reports that it has laid off one-third of its workforce amid a rough season for ad-dependent Internet companies. The Alley-based company, which is backed by Flatiron Partners, Prospect Street Ventures and Citigroup Venture Capital, handed out pink slips to 11 of its 33 employees Monday in […]

Hit by a tightening market for online advertising and under pressure to downsize operations, San Francisco-based interactive agency Lot21 today canned 30 employees. “We had hired optimistically for fourth quarter and due to industry market conditions in general, we have decided to streamline and realign our business,” said Kate Everett-Thorp, president and chief executive officer […]

In a development that further deepens the retrenchment in advertising-related Internet businesses, OneMediaPlace, an online marketplace for the buying and selling of ads, has laid off 39 employees at locations in New York and San Francisco. Company spokesman Patrick Paterson told IAR sister publication AtNewYork.com that the cuts represented 30 percent of OneMediaPlace’s workforce, which […]

Like a wounded quarterback limping to the sidelines, dot-coms are disappearing from next year’s telecast of Super Bowl XXXV on CBS faster that you can say “stock market troubles.” Last year, a total of 19 Internet companies paid top dollar for premium spots on the Super Bowl telecast. So far this year only four dot-coms […]