Articles by Keith Regan

In a bid to tap into the citizen journalism movement and emphasize the interactive possibilities of social media, MySpace will team with NBC News and MSNBC.com to offer two of its millions of users the chance to attend and cover this summer's national political conventions Starting Thursday and until July 16, members of MySpace over the age of 18 w...

Oracle has reached an agreement to buy Skywire, a firm that makes software for the insurance business, as the database and applications giant continues to build out its menu of industry-specific tools The purchase of Skywire marks the second consecutive acquisition in the insurance space for the voracious Oracle, following May's purchase of AdminSe...

Lawmakers have crafted a compromise on a bill that would extend controversial eavesdropping legislation and add provisions meant to protect telecommunications companies from private lawsuits, including several already under way Ending months of negotiations, the House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill that shields cooperating telecommunica...

The vast majority of doctors aren't taking advantage of electronic medical records, with many citing the cost of adoption as a significant impediment, according to a new study that also suggests the tipping point toward broader adoption may be on the horizon Just 17 percent of U.S. doctors have access to some version of electronic health records (E...

Many e-commerce companies have boosted their fortunes by expanding their markets beyond the United States. Avail Intelligence is hoping to help such merchants boost profits and sales by doing the reverse -- expanding from Europe into the United States The move comes as e-commerce growth begins to slow, a function of the sheer size of the market and...

In a reminder that investors remain hungry for chances to back social networking firms, LinkedIn announced it has closed a fourth round of funding worth US$53 million The investment places a valuation of "slightly over $1 billion" on the firm, which bills itself as a professional and business-focused alternative to less formal networks such as MySp...

Seeking to protect its own business model, The Associated Press is hoping to clarify what constitutes fair use of the content is publishes online, with plans to lay out guidelines for bloggers on how much content they can quote The AP, which bills itself as the world's largest and oldest news-gathering organization, hopes to bring clarity to the "f...

The long-awaited merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio may be on the cusp of winning approval, with the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission now saying he is on board with letting it go forward FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will propose allowing the merger to proceed, but will seek two conditions on the deal in his propos...

Hoping to blunt the impact of an expected torrent of negative campaigning, the presidential campaign of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama has launched a Web site dedicated to dispelling rumors and myths about him Obama's campaign launched a site it calls "FightTheSmears" on Thursday, posting several so-called smears taken from various med...

Talks have officially broken down between Yahoo and Microsoft over a potential merger. Instead, Yahoo has struck a partnership to have Google handle some of its search advertising sales The two firms met on June 8 at a private airport in Silicon Valley, and Microsoft representatives made it clear the software maker was no longer interested in pursu...

The ground battle in the proxy war between Carl Icahn and Yahoo has begun in earnest, with Yahoo directly urging shareholders to back the board's slate of directors and ignore Icahn's pleas for change Yahoo filed a copy of the proxy solicitation notice it sent to shareholders with the Securities and Exchange Commission, urging them to vote to keep ...

Signaling JetBlue Airways' belief that travelers want to stay connected at all times, its LiveTV unit has agreed to buy Verizon's Airfone business, a move that will enable the discount carrier to offer a bundle of communications services during flight A JetBlue LiveTV spokesperson who asked not to be named told the E-Commerce Times that a deal has ...

Four months after Starbucks named AT&T as its new WiFi provider, T-Mobile has filed a lawsuit against Starbucks, saying the chain is causing the carrier financial harm by giving away access on its networking infrastructure T-Mobile is claiming that Starbucks engaged in "willful breach of contract and unfair competition" by launching a free WiFi pro...

Mukesh Chatter is no stranger to startups. In 1997, he founded Nexabit Networks, a high-speed switch and router maker he sold to Lucent Technologies. He later founded Axiowave Networks His latest, project, MoneyAisle.com, however, is different, in part because of the inspiration that got it started. After buying a new home, Chatter set out to buy n...

The Federal Trade Commission has started a formal inquiry into the pricing practices of leading chipmaker Intel, a move that rival Advanced Micro Devices has long requested The FTC recently opened the formal investigation by issuing subpoenas to Intel and AMD, as well as other parties, including the personal computer makers who buy chips from the t...

Take-Two Interactive's blockbuster second quarter -- powered by strong early sales of "Grand Theft Auto IV" -- may have implications for the ongoing efforts of Electronic Arts to acquire its main competitor "Grand Theft Auto IV" set records as the best-selling entertainment product ever, Take-Two said, with 6 million units, or US$500 million worth ...

In a move aimed at keeping its customers connected -- and encouraging them to trade more often -- E*Trade on Thursday launched a mobile service customized for Research In Motion's BlackBerry device E*Trade Mobile Pro will offer the same user interface, security features and banking and trading services as the E*Trade Web site exclusively on BlackBe...

Verizon Wireless confirmed Thursday that it will buy Alltel Wireless in a deal worth US$28.1 billion, one that will help it reach new markets and push it ahead of AT&T as the largest wireless carrier in the U.S. The move comes just a year after a group of private equity players took Alltel private. Verizon Wireless will pay $5.9 billion in cash an...

Verizon Wireless confirmed Thursday that it will buy Alltel Wireless in a deal worth US$28.1 billion, one that will help it reach new markets and push it ahead of AT&T as the largest wireless carrier in the U.S. The move comes just a year after a group of private equity players took Alltel private. Verizon Wireless will pay $5.9 billion in cash an...

Verizon Wireless confirmed Thursday that it will buy Alltel Wireless in a deal worth US$28.1 billion, one that will help it reach new markets and push it ahead of AT&T as the largest wireless carrier in the U.S. The move comes just a year after a group of private equity players took Alltel private. Verizon Wireless will pay $5.9 billion in cash an...