Articles by Michael Mahoney

Use of the XML mark-up language as a global standard for e-commerce transactions took an important step forward Monday when the U.N. Center for Trade Facilitation (UN/CEFACT) and OASIS, a consortium of high tech giants including IBM, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard, approved a standardized ebXML (electronic business) framework. "The whole poi...

MP3.com announced Thursday that it is offering a new service, called netCDs, that will allow customers to buy digital music CDsstored exclusively online for access or download from a Web-enabled device The Net-only CDs will be housed online in personalized My.MP3 music lockers. The music collections can also be loaded onto portable MP3 players....

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) chief executive officer Jeff Bezos has filed to sell 300,000 shares ofAmazon stock -- under a recently enacted rule designed to allow executivesto sell company stock at fixed intervals without violating insider-trading rules -- according to a regulatory filing made with the U.S. Securities and ExchangeCommission (SEC) Bezo...

While there might be more hand-wringing over dot-com layoffs than is truly warranted, e-commerce watchers have as much right to be concerned about recent job-cut trends as anyone in other segments of the high-tech sector Data for April released by job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CGC) indicated a new monthly record for overall dot-c...

The controversy continues for travel mega-site Orbitz. Southwest Airlines sued the airline-backed travel giant Thursday for providing "false and misleading" information to its customers regarding Southwest flight schedules, rates and fares. Southwest also alleged that Orbitz is using Southwest's proprietary scheduling information without Southwest...

A new car company offering customized automobiles over the Internet has beenformed through the merger of online car sales company Model E and Flint, Inc. a start-up created by CarsDirect.com co-founder Scott Painter The new venture, called Build-To-Order or BTOauto.com, said that it will be led by the former chief executive officer of Model E, Will...

North American e-commerce revenue is expected to grow 46 percent by the end of 2001 compared to a year earlier, tojust over US$65 billion, according to aretailer survey released Wednesday by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Shop.org In addition, the report predicted that online retailing will show significant growth as a percentage of overall ...

Following in the paths of rivals Travelocity (Nasdaq: TLVY) and Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE), another online travel leader has beaten the street. Priceline (Nasdaq: PCLN) announced Tuesday a pro forma net loss for the first quarter 2001 of US$6.2million, or 3 cents per share, beating analyst estimates of a loss of5 to 7 cents per share.

A channel surf across the e-business landscape reveals mixed signals when it comes to the success of TV network-backed Web sites. The television networks -- with their brand identity, pervasive audience base and major financial backing -- should have taken their rightful place at the e-commerce table by now. After all, traditional retailers like G...

After two consecutive months of declining layoffs, dot-com companiesmade a record 17,554 job cuts in April, marking an 84 percent increase over the 9,533 e-business jobs cut in March, according to a report released Thursday by job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CGC) "These were surprising numbers because it looked like we had peaked, ...

Despite a recent hesitancy on the part of e-business investors to get involved in the Asia-Pacific market, a report released Friday by IDC predicted that B2B e-commerce in the region will sell more than US$61 billion indirect and indirect materials by the end of 2002, compared to $12.8billion spent in 2000 In addition, the report said that of the $...

Riding strong electronics and international sales through a traditionallyslower quarter, Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) posteda pro forma net loss of US$49 million, or 21 cents per share, for the firstquarter ended March 31st, beating initial analyst estimates by 3 to 4 cents In discussing the results, Amazon chief executive officer Jeff Bezos emphasize...

According to a report released by the European Commission (EC) in late March, less than 5 percent of all European Internet users shop regularly on the Web. Surprisingly, that may be a good thing for e-commerce on the continent. It may be taking Europeans longer than Americans to gravitate toward online shopping, but the numbers also mean that Euro...

E-Stamp (Nasdaq: ESTM) completed its ongoing transformation from an Internetpostage business Friday, announcing it is merging with Learn2.com tofocus on the corporate e-learning market. E-Stamp willphase out its shipping and logistics services The new company, to be called Learn2 Corporation, will have approximatelyUS$15 million to $17.5 million in...

Adding to the recent wave of profitable earnings reports, eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) announced Thursday that net income for its first quarter 2001 was US$21.1 million, or 8 cents per diluted share. The earnings beat analyst predictions. San Jose, California-based eBay said that its pro forma net income of $30.6 million was a company record for a quarter....

Just as one six-figure online auction scam on eBay was finding closure, eBay has begun investigating another, according to published reports Wednesday. This time, the alleged fraud involves the sale of over US$400,000 in gold and silver coins and bullion, which were allegedly never delivered to winning bidders after payment was received, the New Y...

Published reports stating that Homestore.com (Nasdaq: HOMS) had breached a seven-day old contract with Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) are "absolutely incorrect," a spokesperson for the bank told the E-Commerce Times on Tuesday, an assertion that contradicted comments she allegedly made to the press earlier in the day A week ago, Homestore announced th...

Online retailer Buy.com (Nasdaq: BUYX) announced Thursday that two members of its board of directors, both representing the venture capital arm of Tokyo-based Softbank, are leaving the struggling e-tailer The departures of Softbank's William L. Burnham and Scott Russell leave four seats open on the Buy.com board. Jonathan Firestone, a former presid...

An elaborate Internet scam involving fake banking documents worth approximatelyUS$3.9 billion has been shut down by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), London-based ICC Commercial Crime Services announced Wednesday According to the ICC, the fraud involved the use of fake European bankingguarantees on at least 29 different Web sites that co...

The day after Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) announced it would see a narrower-than-expected lossfor the first quarter, shares of the e-tail giant continued their dramatic ascentin early morning trading Tuesday, rising more than $2.00, or 19 percent, toas high as $13.50 a share. But will such renewed optimism hold, or is thesudden turnaround a false boom? B...