Articles by Chet Dembeck

Excite@Home announced today that it has formed an alliance with privately held AirFlash.com to provide content for wireless handheld devices. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed The deal could be significant, according to some industry observers, because the Redwood City, California-based AirFlash.com claims to be the first and only portal pr...

A new report by Forrester Research, Inc. predicts that mobile phones -- not PCs -- will drive the growth of Italian e-commerce. Over the next three years, Italy is expected to narrow its e-commerce gap with other European players through a combination of new mobile services and partnerships The study found that Italy's struggle to keep pace with Eu...

Last week, while testifying before the Advisory Commission of Electronic Commerce, a group of bureaucrats -- also known as state and local government officials -- sang a familiar tune. They hummed a few bars, did a little soft-shoe, and claimed that public safety and public education will deteriorate without sales tax revenue from e-commerce To hea...

A new report by Forrester Research, Inc. predicts that free Internet access in the U.K and the rest of Europe will collapse by 2002 The report foresees that market and regulatory forces will lower European interconnect phone fees, decreasing margins dramatically over the next two years. As a result, user interconnection revenues will drop 30 percen...

Instill Corp., a provider of e-business services for the foodservice industry, announced today that it has raised an additional $24.3 million (US$) in venture capital financing This latest round of funding brings the Palo Alto, California-based company's total financing to $44.5 million. Chase Capital Partners led the round, which also included inv...

Last week, when shares of America Online, Inc. fell 6.3 percent amid investor fears that its competitors would soon be giving Internet service away, AOL announced that it expects to meet profit forecasts Additionally, the number one Internet service provider asked its shareholders to allow it to issue an additional 4.2 billion shares, increasing it...

Woburn, Massachusetts-based FairMarket Inc. is teaming up with Microsoft, Dell, Excite@Home and other e-commerce portals to stage an all-out attack against eBay, Inc., the reigning online auction champion Starting Monday, the privately-held FairMarket will administer a network of more than 100 auction Web sites. This arrangement means that an antiq...

According to a new report from Forrester Research, Inc., 90 percent of Web sites fail to comply with basic privacy principles The report vehemently contradicts the findings of the Federal Trade Commission, which recently told Congress that industry self-policing is working.

FirstLook.com, a new music-sampling Web site, was launched today by MusicNow, Inc. The new site, based on GoTo.com Inc.'s e-commerce model, gives top billing to artists and companies who are willing to pay more per click-through Every time a visitor clicks on to hear a new audio sample of a particular artist, MusicNow gets a click fee from the arti...

Last week, following a supposed off-the-cuff remark made by E*Trade's Chief Executive Christos Cotsakos, rumors flared that online brokerage E*Trade Group, Inc. might soon strike up some type of alliance with a brick-and-mortar financial firm The comment was reportedly made at the close of a meeting on Wednesday with some analysts. Although Cotsako...

3Com Corp., the second largest maker of computer networking products, has announced that it will spin off its PalmPilot unit Investors in the Santa Clara, California-based company are delighted. They have watched their shares plummet more than 40 percent since December, largely because of a flat market and the falling prices of modems and network c...

America Online (NYSE: AOL) and online florist 1-800-Flowers.com (Nasdaq: FLWS) announced today that they have extended and expanded their partnership until 2003 Under the terms of the 4-year, $37 million (US$) deal, 1-800-Flowers.com will continue as the exclusive third-party marketer of fresh-cut flowers on AOL and AOL.com. Starting in 2000, the o...

Last week, Microsoft Corp. and government lawyers met to make their final rebuttals before the judge renders his initial ruling on the antitrust case against the software giant U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson also ordered both sides to present their final written versions of the facts of the case, which approached 1,000 pages each.

According to a new study by Mercer Management Consulting, e-tailers will crash and burn this holiday season if they fail to improve their service The survey of 1,019 U.S. Internet users found that e-tailers are having difficulty building a loyal customer base that will continually spend money at their site. Mercer vice president Richard Christner f...

Gay.com announced today that it has partnered with GAYBC Radio Network to co-develop and distribute both live and on-demand radio programs for its users While specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed, GAYBC's 24-hour / seven-days-a-week schedule of live talk shows, music and hourly news updates will be part of Gay.com's initial radio prog...

Seeing Prodigy Communications Corp. back in the news again brought back fond memories Last week, the White Plains, New York-based online service provider plunked down $100 million (US$) in cash and stock to purchase popular Web-hosting company BizOnThe.Net.

Online auctioneer FreeMarkets, Inc. will attempt to raise as much as $70 million (US$) from an initial public offering The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based business-to-business auctioneer specializes in helping companies sell items such as industrial equipment and raw materials over the Internet.

A couple of weeks ago, online bookseller Fatbrain.com introduced a new model for selling books, magazine articles and other documents that it says will radically change the publishing world Before the announcement, the Palo Alto, California-based Fatbrain.com had focused on selling business and professional books. But with the advent of its new sys...

As part of a direct push into the data-storage market, Dell Computer Corp. agreed to buy privately held ConvergeNet Technologies, Inc. for stock valued at $340 (US$) million The computer giant will buy the San Jose, California-based company for 6.9 million of its common stock shares. In addition, Dell will take a charge of 5 to 7 cents for in-proce...

According to industry analyst Zona Research, Inc., Yahoo! Inc.'s new online bill-paying service has the potential to change the e-commerce landscape forever The new Yahoo Bill Pay service will allow users to electronically pay any U.S. biller, including companies and individuals. Those who aren't able to accept electronic payments will be mailed a ...