Articles by Rob Conlin

Music giant Universal Music Group said today that it is forming a new record label that will "uniquely harness the strength and reach of the Internet," with America Online (NYSE: AOL) and others serving as key strategic partners The new label will be called Jimmy and Doug's Farm Club, and reflects the combined names of Jimmy Iovine, Co-Chairman of ...

E-tail success usually comes when a company outdoes its adversaries with a hard-hitting mix of product, price and ease-of-use It also comes when a company figures out a way to service an under-served market. That's why the good news for e-tailers everywhere is that there is an age group that has not been fully served on the Web.

American Express announced the launch of its American Express Brokerage today, becoming the latest in a series of traditional brick-and-mortar brokerages and financial firms to launch major online trading sites The financial services conglomerate disclosed that its new site -- which is an upgrade on the rather lackluster Financial Direct site it la...

Name-your-price pioneer priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) announced today that it will add long distance telephone calls to its offerings by the beginning of next year and will eventually offer a name-your-price business-to-business long distance service The Stamford, Connecticut-based company said that it signed a three-year, $18 million (US$) deal wit...

Less than a week after launching a localized Tripod online community site in Japan, Internet network Lycos, Inc. (Nasdaq: LCOS) announced that it has raised $32 million (US$) from a major Japanese media company The Waltham, Massachusetts-based network said that Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co. Ltd. invested in the Lycos Japan venture and became a par...

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and AT&T found themselves traveling down different legal paths this week, as Amazon settled a lawsuit out of court while AT&T found itself arguing to overturn a court decision that would force it to open its cable lines to other Internet service providers The Seattle, Washington-based Amazon was on the defending end of a s...

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and AT&T found themselves traveling down different legal paths this week, as Amazon settled a lawsuit out of court while AT&T found itself arguing to overturn a court decision that would force it to open its cable lines to other Internet service providers The Seattle, Washington-based Amazon was on the defending end of a s...

Online party supplier Great Entertaining.com announced yesterday that it has received second round funding of $31 million (US$) from a variety of venture capital firms The San Francisco, California-based company, which launched its site last month, disclosed that original investor Benchmark Capital had doubled its investment. Technology Crossover V...

TicketMaster Online-CitySearch announced Monday that it has successfully folded 43 Microsoft SideWalk City sites into its network and will introduce its fully-integrated 77-city CitySearch sites this week TMCS bought the 43 SideWalk City sites from Microsoft in July for $240 million (US$) in stock. Microsoft received a nine percent stake in TMCS wi...

Online grocer HomeGrocer.com announced today that it has received an additional $100 million (US$) in financing and will dramatically expand its service to an estimated 20 markets across the United States The Kirkland, Washington-based company said that the fourth-round of financing was led by minority shareholder Amazon.com, as well as Kleiner Per...

Japanese Internet conglomerate Softbank Corp. announced Monday that it plans to launch an online auto parts venture for the Japanese market with a major oil company and three other partners Softbank will own 46 percent of the eShopping! CarGoods Corp., while oil company Nippon Mitsubishi will hold a 24 percent stake.

Online auction site eBay is reportedly taking part in a $22 million (US$) backing of business surplus trader TradeOut.com The San Jose, California-based online auctioneer is one of three companies to take a stake in the privately-held TradeOut.com. The other two investors are Benchmark Capital and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

Domain registrar Network Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: NSOL) reported today that registrations shot up sharply in the third quarter, with international registrations helping to fuel a growth that is expected to continue well into the next century NSI registered a record 1.3 million new "dot-com," "dot-net," and "dot-org" names, up from 1.2 million in th...

Freeserve Plc, the United Kingdom's largest Internet Service Provider, announced today that it is joining an already-crowded field by launching an online auction site next month The company announced that it is starting a joint venture with U.S.-based Classified Ventures, Inc. and will take an80 percent stake in the venture. Following the classic o...

Online financial services company E*Trade Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGRP) continued its international push today by announcing that it has taken a 2.26 percent stake in Easdaq, a pan-European stock market for international growth and technology companies The Menlo Park, California-based company did not disclose the price it paid for the stake, but Easda...

A U.S Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that dominant domain name registrar Network Solutions Inc. (Nasdaq: NSOL) is not legally responsible when it approves a domain name that results in a trademark infringement The 9th U.S. Circuit ruled 3-0 in favor of NSI in a case first filed by aeronautics company Lockheed Martin in 1996. The suit accused NSI ...

Interactive Pictures (Nasdaq: IPIX) and bamboo.com (Nasdaq: BAMB), two of the leading providers of interactive pictures for the Internet, announced today that they have agreed to a merger valued at approximately $850 million (US$) The two companies said that they will exchange stock in a 50/50 merger, with IPIX shareholders receiving 1.36 shares of...

Shopping portal Espanol.com launched its service yesterday, becoming the latest in a long line of Spanish-language Web sites to target the Spanish-speaking market in the United States and Latin America The Wakefield, Massachusetts-based site will initially sell Spanish-language books, music and videos and will ultimately end up offering jewelry, el...

We've seen big news in Internet lawsuits this week. Priceline attacks the 800-pound Microsoft gorilla for using the"name-your-own-price" business model, and Amazon tries to clobber arch-enemy barnesandnoble.com for using the "1-click" easy-to-buy technology. Are these actions simple coincidence, or is there something in the Internet water that's making these previously sweet dot-coms pick up the heavy artillery? ...

Internet powerhouse Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) filed a lawsuit yesterday against barnesandnoble.com, claiming that its 1-Click technology patent has been infringed upon The suit was filed in a federal court in Seattle, Washington. Amazon is seeking an immediate court-ordered halt to barnesandnoble.com's alleged copycat feature, which allows returnin...