Articles by Chet Dembeck

Last week, a Canadian programmer stumbled upon an obscure digital "signing key" labeled "NSA Key" in the latest version of Microsoft's NT software. The discovery led him to accuse Microsoft of putting in a secret "back door" that allows the National Security Agency to snoop into the files of unsuspecting PC users Microsoft immediately denied the ch...

Internet portal Lycos, Inc. announced today that it has agreed to buy Quote.com, Inc. for $78.3 (US$) million, plus the assumption of the privately held company's stock option plan Neither company would disclose the value of the stock option plan.

Healthcare information Web site Mediconsult.com has agreed to buy privately held Physicians Online for stock valued at about $165 (US$) million and the assumption of $13.5 million in debt Physicians Online is available to doctors only -- who use it to exchange information and discuss clinical issues via the Internet. According to company officials,...

The British Broadcasting Corp. created a roar of protests last week when it launched its free Internet service known as www.freebeeb.net The action immediately stoked the ire of 10 U.K. media companies, including United News & Media Plc and Emap Plc, which are demanding that its Internet service be scratched.

Healthcare information portal AmericasDoctor.com is scheduled to make its debut on Wall Street this week This development comes several months after the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its initial public offering. Industry observers will be carefully watching how AmericasDoctor.com's offering fares on its first day out...

According to industry analyst Forrester Research, Inc., leading Web strategists consider European e-commerce sites to be a good value and easy to use, but U.S. sites still remain the international benchmark of excellence This conclusion is just one of the findings of a survey conducted with 66 Net strategists from 30 interactive architect firms and...

Six of the biggest Internet companies joined forces last week to try and persuade governments throughout the world to make the laws regulating e-commerce more uniform In addition, the group that includes such rivals as Microsoft Corp., America Online, Inc. and IBM said it hopes to boost consumer confidence in buying products and services via the Wo...

Netship founder and chief executive officer David G. Campbell offers a simple but not easy success formula for anyone contemplating entering the e-commerce arena "Anyone who wants to compete must have a value-added product," Campbell told the E-Commerce Times, in an exclusive interview yesterday.

Reactions to Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s purchase of office productivity software maker Star Division Corp. have been decidedly mixed. While some industry observers see the move simply as an attempt to gain a toehold in the desktop office productivity market, others see it as a direct challenge to the Microsoft juggernaut ...

While the assets that online brokerage firms manage will soar to a hefty $3 trillion (US$) by 2003, the industry continues to lag far behind other e-commerce players in delivering prompt service to its customers These are the conclusions of a quarterly customer service survey released Wednesday by Internet market researcher Jupiter Communications.

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission came a step closer to allowing federal law-enforcement agencies to use the Internet to tap into your e-mail and voice messages. By giving the high-tech industry another year to come up with a legal way to monitor the packet-mode communications used for the Internet, the FCC seems ready to widen the government's investigative power in much the same way it did for telecommunications...

While younger online shoppers crisscross the Web in search of the perfect deal, surfing seniors are quietly making purchases In fact, according to a new study conducted by Westport, Connecticut-based Greenfield Online, Inc., 92 percent of seniors have window-shopped on the Web -- and a whopping 78 percent of them have completed transactions. In add...

Wall Street pundits are fingering the uncertainty of interest rates as the main culprit behind the less-than-glamorous debut of many initial public offerings in August However, these fears seem to have lessened after the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to raise the federal-funds target rate and discount rate by only a quarter percentage point. Now som...

Internet toy marketer eToys, Inc. announced today that it will soon expand internationally by launching a Web site in the United Kingdom The move marks the first time that the Santa Monica, California-based company has ventured outside of the United States. eToys said that it intends to introduce a Web site designed specifically for the U.K. in tim...

When Joseph Galli stunned Wall Street by becoming Amazon.com, Inc.'s president and chief executive officer instead of taking the helm of PepsiCo, Inc., there was much speculation about what kind of package had made him change his mind Now, several months later, the deal that captured the 41 year-old Galli is a matter of public record -- thanks to A...

America Online, Inc. and PC retailer CompUSA, Inc. have forged a two-year alliance to sell a new line of personal computers pre-loaded with AOL and CompuServe software. AOL has about 20 million subscribers, and CompUSA is the largest PC retailer in the United States Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but all PCs with the CompUSA brand name will ...

Privately held media company Landmark Communications, Inc. announced today that it will pump $9 million (US$) into Burlington, Massachusetts-based Bidder's Edge, Inc. Bidder's Edge, a portal which allows its users to search many different auction sites at once, will use the money to expand its operations by hiring additional staff, developing new marketing programs and building up its capability to cover the growing number of online auctions...

Internet privacy, the issue that just won't seem to go away, is back and heating up again. However, while the rhetoric may be flying, the consumer isn't reaping any real benefits. So far, it seems that re-definitions of "privacy" and related concepts are only giving cover to giant corporations who don't want outsiders peering at them through the knothole in the fence...

When Bank One Corp. opened WingspanBank.com two months ago, it seemed to be just another foray into cyberspace by a major brick-and-mortar financial giant That was two months ago. Since then, the new online bank has been acting more like a startup than most startups. It has even begun to compete against its parent: Certificates of deposit at Wingsp...

Online brokerage firm Web Street Securities, Inc. has filed for a $50 million (US$) initial stock sale to raise money for expansion and the buildup of its online capacities The Deerfield, Illinois-based brokerage firm, run by brothers Joseph and Avi Fox, did not disclose how many shares would be in the IPO, their price range, or other details. Howe...