Thor Olavsrud

In an all-stock deal valued at about $2.3 billion, Maxtor Corp. and Quantum Corp. Wednesday revealed definitive plans to merge Maxtor and Quantum’s Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Group. Maxtor will issue Quantum’s HDD stockholders 1.52 common stock shares for each share they own. Maxtor will account for the transaction as a purchase and said the […]

Businesses that don’t respond effectively to their customers rapidly lose their footing in the marketplace. But the fragmentation of customer touch-points — fax, telephony, the Web, e-mail, chat and wireless — can leave the staunchest marketing manager bathed in a cold sweat. Enter E.piphany, which, like a number of companies today, specializes in Customer Relationship […]

With the passing of the midnight deadline Monday for applications to operate new top level domains (TLDs), a group of 19 leading registrars formed a consortium — Afilias LLC — to push three proposals: .web, .info and .site. The only problem? Other companies have made proposals for the same TLDs, and in the case of […]

Pioneering Webcaster Pseudo Programs Inc. took the plunge Tuesday. Two weeks after laying off its 175 employees, the broadband entertainment company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Perhaps the company was too precocious for its own good. Born as an Internet chat company […]

Leading modem maker U.S. Robotics Monday unveiled the 56K Internet Call Modem which gives normal telephones Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) capability while retaining the sound quality of a telephone. Developed in conjunction with Net2Phone, the internal PCI-bus modem utilizes Net2Phone’s Internet telephony network to enable free calls within the U.S. and Canada. While the […]

The path to profitability for Internet companies is a rocky road, and Greg Kyle, president and chief executive officer of independent Internet research firm Pegasus Research International, said Monday that many companies are feeling the burn — burn rate that is. According to the Pegasus Burn Rate Scorecard, Internet companies are burning substantial amounts of […]

Phone.com and Software.com Friday moved one step closer to their merger and their vision of becoming a provider of carrier-class software to wireless and wireline carriers, portals and ISPs. Both companies announced they had set a record date as of close of business on Sept. 25. Phone.com shareholders of record will vote on adoption of […]

Blaming a slowdown in online ad spending, community and game site company theglobe.com said its third-quarter pro forma loss per share will be between 37 and 35 cents, significantly higher than the 28 cents per share loss expected by analysts. The company’s stock, which at one time traded in the $17 range, was diving again […]

After 18 years at the helm, Compaq Computer Chairman Ben Rosen, 67, Thursday passed the baton to Compaq President and Chief Executive Officer Michael D. Capellas, 46. Capellas’ appointment was unanimously approved by Compaq’s board. “Michael’s appointment is a natural and appropriate step for Compaq at this moment in our history,” Rosen said. “After almost […]

Cisco Systems Inc. Thursday gobbled up two companies — San Jose-based Vovida Networks and Richardson, Texas-based IPCell Technologies — for about $369 million in stock. All year, Cisco has been ravenously pursuing companies that it thinks will help it extend its vision of a single, IP-based communications network. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco […]

In an effort to curb the rapid depletion of its capital, New York-based Musicmaker.com Inc., a company that enables custom CD compilation and digital downloads, slashed its full-time staffing by 30 percent Thursday and reduced its cash burn to about $10 to $12 million annually. In its latest quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with […]

Sun Microsystems (SUNW), the company that has long evangelized the Unix server, has a new sermon: the “Net Effect.” And Sun is banking that its flock, staunch long-time supporters and new converts alike, will hearken to the Net Effect”s message and snap up the new workstation and server built around its new — and long-awaited […]