Articles by Chet Dembeck

Last week, Marc Andreessen, the 28 year-old co-founder of Netscape, received a lukewarm reception from the New Democrat Network when he unveiled his prescription to combat the dearth of high-tech workers in the United States According to published reports, Andreessen's keynote address to a group of Democratic officeholders and candidates at the San...

Less than a year after its IPO, online insurance portal InsWeb Corp. said on Monday that it is moving its headquarters and cutting its staff by 40 percent The Redwood City, California-based company said it plans to move its offices to Sacramento, California later this year and cut its workforce by 120 people.

E-commerce helped to reverse a decline in overall book sales for adults in 1999, according to a new study by NPD Group, Inc. of Port Washington, New York The study found that sales of books purchased for readers 14 and older rose 3 percent to more than 1 billion in 1999, with books bought online accounting for 5.4 percent of those sales -- up from ...

Last week's news that four New Jersey teenagers got sick from a drug they allegedly bought on Internet auction site eBay once again raised the issue of whether online auctioneers should be held liable for the actions of their members According to published reports, four 17 year-old students at a boarding school in Hightstown, New Jersey were treate...

Several weeks ago, when America Online, Inc. agreed to shell out $3.5 million (US$) to settle charges that it violated financial reporting rules by deferring advertising costs rather than showing them as expenses, the news barely made a blip on most media radar screens The minor drama dates back to 1996, when AOL found itself at a critical crossroa...

A U.S. federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Thursday against Bidder's Edge, barring the auction portal from searching the eBay site for auction information The injunction, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Whyte, will go into effect June 8th. The court granted the motion on the grounds that eBay was likely to succeed at trial on i...

Earlier this week, the well known San Francisco, California-based Hummer Winblad Venture Partners agreed to pour $15 million (US$) into popular music-swapping site Napster, stirring up another hornet's nest of controversy in the music industry Hummer Winblad's action begged the question: Why would anyone invest in a music company that is struggling...

When General Motors Corp. (GM) warned its dealers against selling to "direct" auto brokers like CarsDirect.com, the company confirmed what many analysts have been predicting: e-commerce is forcing a restructuring of the auto industry that is going to pit manufacturers against their own dealers GM's letter -- which was sent to its 7,000 dealers -- c...

In a step that has sparked debate across all corners of the political landscape, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted Friday to ask Congress for the authority to impose stiffer regulations to protect consumer privacy online The FTC's latest attempt to involve government in online commerce stems partly from results of surveys conducted by t...

In an attempt to rebuild its tarnished image, DoubleClick, Inc. appointed an independent panel Wednesday that will be responsible for reviewing the controversial Internet advertising company's new products and services for potential privacy violations The company's seven-member "privacy advisory board" includes consumer advocates, security experts ...

One has to wonder if America Online CEO Steve Case and Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin were both asleep at the switch earlier this month when Time Warner decided to yank Disney-owned ABC's programming because of a contract dispute The blackout came on the eve of an important rating sweeps night and lasted almost 48 hours, causing 3.5 million cons...

With the U.S. presidential election cycle lurching into high gear, both major political parties are stumbling over one another in an effort to take credit for the success of the Internet and e-commerce Each party sees the past decade through a different prism -- Democrats contend that the Clinton-Gore soft touch was responsible for the Net's growth...

Three of the largest European hotel chains announced plans Tuesday to launch a joint venture that will provide online bookings, reservation systems and a business-to-business (B2B) platform for wholesale purchasing Hilton International, Accor SA and Forte Hotel Group, owned by UK media firm Granada Group Plc, said they will make an initial joint in...

Authorities are speculating that the most costly computer virus in history, known commonly as the Love Bug, may have originated as an attempt by its author to obtain free Internet access. According to CNN, investigators are saying that aside from replicating itself and destroying files, the virus also searched for sign-on names and passwords to e-mail back to the Love Bug's creator...

According to published reports, New Internet Company, a San Francisco, California-based company owned by Oracle Chairman Lawrence Ellison, will unveil a new $199 (US$) PC that is designed to do little more than surf the Web and send e-mail The new black box will get its first trial run in Dallas, Texas, where Ellison will donate more than 1,000 of ...

Just one week after his company lost the first round in a bitter legal battle with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson expressed hope for a negotiated settlement "We've been talking to the labels for about three to four weeks on a daily basis," Robertson told CBS MarketWatch on Thursday. "Actually -- ...

Predictably, a new tracking software program developed by Boston, Massachusetts-based Predictive Networks, Inc. has already been attacked by some privacy advocates However, the hue and cry seems premature, as it appears that many Web users are willing to let the company track their every move in return for a lower service rate from their Internet S...

Despite the endless posturing and legal wrangling that has taken place over the duration of the Microsoft antitrust drama, Friday's proposal by the U.S. Justice Department and 19 states to split the software titan into two competing companies must have come as quite a heavy blow to Bill Gates After all, Gates has not been shy about letting reporter...

Online women's network iVillage should install a revolving door at its New York headquarters -- if it has not done so already -- to make it easier for top management to exit Over the past several days, chief operating officer Allison Abraham departed the company to become president of e-mail marketer Lifeminders.com, Inc., and chief financial offic...

The proposed merger of America Online and Time Warner, Inc. came to a fork in the road earlier this week, when a coalition of consumer and media groups called upon the U.S. government to block the deal Advocacy organization Consumers Union and three other groups filed petitions with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking the government ...