Articles by Keith Regan

In an effort to solidify its niche in the online advertising market, search engine Google has launched an advertising service that will deliver Web pages with targeted, sponsored links instead of random banner ads. The move comes on the heels of a plan announced by Google's main competitor in the pay-per-click ad market, Overture Services, to offe...

It is a common business scenario: A new CEO takes over a struggling company and vows to put it on more solid financial footing. He assures investors that he will cut only the fat from the ailing organization, leaving the muscle and bone the company will need to survive and thrive intact But when it comes time to put the scalpel -- or the hatchet, a...

EMC and Hitachi have settled simmering patent infringement lawsuits with a long-term agreement that calls for cross-licensing and cooperative development of new technology. As part of the deal, Tokyo-based Hitachi will make undisclosed payments to EMC, which first filed suit against Hitachi last April after Hitachi made a late but strong entry int...

Lucent Technologies has cleared what could have been a major obstacle to its ongoing turnaround. The telecommunications equipment maker has reached a settlement to close the books on a probe into its accounting practices by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Lucent said the settlement, which requires a vote of the full commission t...

E-commerce grew at a pace that put the overall economy to shame in 2002, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), which said online sales surpassed US$45 billion during the year. The DOC also said e-commerce is an increasingly large part of the overall retail economy, with 1.6 percent of the total pie in the fourth quarter of 2002, comp...

Echoing reports of similar deals from such competitors as IBM, computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) said it won a five-year contract to handle technology outsourcing for Telecom Italia, a fixed-wire and wireless communications firm The companies said the deal is worth 225 million euros, or about US$243 million. It calls for HP to provide information...

Long after the bubble burst, leaving office buildings half-empty and six-figure software engineers hunting for work, Silicon Valley remains one of the most important technology centers on Earth. From chipmakers like Intel to auction giant eBay, the Valley is still home to many of the high-tech industry's standard-bearers. But in an era of bottom-l...

In a bid to bolster the technology that drives its booming search services, Overture Services has announced it will pay US$140 million to acquire once-venerable search engine AltaVista from dot-com incubator CMGI. The deal consists of $80 million worth of stock and $60 million in cash. The fire-sale price represents a bargain for Overture and a di...

Cisco Systems is investing US$150 million in a global advertising campaign to increase awareness of what a high-powered corporate network can do for companies' bottom lines. The effort also is designed to position Cisco for growth in new business segments. The campaign, which debuted in several newspapers, will blend television, print and online a...

Hitachi and Oracle have announced they will strengthen an existing alliance, creating a partnership focused on improving integration of database management and information storage. Specifically, the two companies, which have been working together for some time already, said they will strive to more tightly integrate Hitachi's Freedom Storage syste...

Computer maker Dell has terminated what was to be a long-term, US$16 billion parts contract with IBM. The move is a likely result of Big Blue's decision to exit some manufacturing businesses. Dell also said that a separate partnership, which was initially seen as a $6 billion deal in which Dell would funnel customers seeking computer services to I...

During the high-tech boom, vision was in. Corporate leaders like AOL's Steve Case, who made bold predictions and then acted with full confidence that those forecasts would come to pass, were the heroes of the New Economy Nowadays, on the other hand, CEOs seem to be cherished more for their ability to keep costs down and make the tough business deci...

Microsoft's rivals have opened a new front in the battle over the software giant's alleged monopolistic behavior, saying Windows XP violates existing European antitrust law. The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) said Monday that it had filed a new complaint with the European Commission. The group, which counts AOL, Sun Microsys...

Cisco Systems has announced it will partner with Yahoo! to target its networking solutions toward small and mid-size businesses that previously may have thought the company's gear was too costly for them or that do not know where to turn for networking help. The two San Jose, California-based companies will market Cisco's products through an exist...

Collection of online sales tax, once seen by analysts as a potential death knell for some e-tailers and a drag on e-commerce growth in general, has quietly begun. Several major sites already have started levying the extra fees on purchases. The move by such large multichannel retailers as Wal-Mart, Toys "R" Us and Target to start voluntarily colle...

Network equipment maker Cisco Systems has reported a surge in profits that helped it squeak past analyst expectations, but the company actually booked lower sales and indicated that its customers may act even more conservatively heading into 2003. Cisco's net income for its second fiscal quarter totaled US$991 million, well above Q2 2002 levels of...

A judge has given Microsoft a reprieve from an order that required it to begin including Sun Microsystems' Java software with its Windows operating system by the end of April. But even though the stay buys Microsoft some time and virtually guarantees that its epic legal battle with Sun will continue, Microsoft said it has already drawn up a plan t...

Though it is widely praised for its cost-efficient online and phone sales model, Dell now plans to try its hand at selling computers in retail stores. The company said it will install sales kiosks inside Texas Sears locations and will make permanent a shopping-mall experiment. However, Dell noted, the moves do not indicate a change in its overall ...

Hoping to extend its popularity into the small and mid-size business arena, eBay has formally launched a new section called eBay Business. The section currently features about 500,000 product listings, focusing heavily on office technology products, such as computers and networking devices, as well as wholesale lots of consumer goods and services,...

Venture investing plunged nearly 50 percent in 2002, dipping to levels last seen in 1998, according to the latest MoneyTree Survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). During the year, venture financiers invested just US$21.2 billion, compared with $41.3 billion in 2001.