Articles by Keith Regan

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) said Wednesday it will offer new international shipping plans designed to cut the length of time overseas customers must wait for delivery of goods bought on the e-tail site. Rather than varying shipping terms country by country, the cost and time it takes Amazon to ship goods will now depend on which of 10 regions a cust...

By now, no one needs to be told yet again what a difference a year can make for e-commerce and the Net. But a stark reminder is taking place in San Francisco on Wednesday, in the form of the Webby Awards This is supposed to be a celebration of all that's right with the Web, mind you. But last year's music winner, Napster, has gone silent while serv...

The U.S. Justice Department has closed its antitrust investigation into Homestore.com (Nasdaq: HOMS), including Homestore's acquisition of Move.com and agreements with Cendant Corporation, without taking action, Homestore said Monday. Homestore said its acquisition of Move.com from Cendant and several related agreements have been cleared by the Ju...

USA Networks (Nasdaq: USAI) said Monday it will buy the controlling stake in travel site Expedia.com from Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), as the entertainment company makes a major push into online travel. Los Angeles-based USA Networks said it has agreed to purchase up to 37.5 million shares of Expedia stock, including more than 33 million shares and w...

Succeeding in any competitive business requires a killer instinct. And it's especially true in an industry as competitive, fast-growing and increasingly crowded as online travel. No one can be bullied and hope to be around in the long run. So Southwest Airlines is right to stand up for what it sees as its own interests in its ongoing feud with Orb...

AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL) said Thursday it has struck an expanded marketing deal with Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG), under which the two companies will pursue development of new television-based e-commerce platforms Focused largely on cooperative marketing in the European market, where Amsterdam-based Phillips has a stronghold, the deal also ca...

Battered Internet incubator CMGI (Nasdaq: CMGI) on Tuesday replaced its longtime chief financial officer with a former Bertelsmann executive as it continues trying to stem rising financial losses. The hiring of new CFO George McMillan, the former president and chief executive officer of BMG Direct -- the Bertelsmann unit that oversees CDNow.com an...

It's human nature to search for context, to try and putevents, especially negative events, into perspective. And it's journalistic nature to see every event as a superlative: the biggest, the best, the last, the final proof So depending upon where you got your news about Webvan (Nasdaq: WBVN) closing up shop and filing for bankruptcy protection, it...

Travel site Expedia.com (Nasdaq: EXPE) said Tuesday it has struck a deal to have its Internet search technology licensed to more than 20,000 online and offline travel agents around the world. The initiative, known as ePricing, stems from Expedia's long-standing partnership with Worldspan, an airline-backed reservation system used by travel agents....

Luxury gift e-tailer Ashford.com (Nasdaq: ASFD) said Monday it has struck a partnership with eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) that will enable it to sell leftover and closeout merchandise on the auction site. Houston, Texas-based Ashford, which now specializes in jewelry, watches and other luxury items for the corporate gift and rewards program markets, will s...

Someday, in the afterlife, Napoleon Bonaparte, Douglas MacArthur and other military legends will gather around chief executive officer Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and congratulate Bezos on his battlefield tactics. For e-commerce has never known a more cunning general. Actually, to call Amazon's latest bait-and-switch move in offering a...

Online grocer Webvan (Nasdaq: WBVN) will hold its third asset auction early next month, selling off US$30 million worth of equipment used to service the Altanta, Georgia market it departed earlier this year. The auction, scheduled for August 7th and 8th, is the latest bid by Foster City, California-based Webvan to raise some of the estimated $25 m...

It was only a matter of time. One of the first questions posed by analysts during a conference call to discuss the takeover of HotJobs by Monster.com parent company TMP Worldwide was the antitrust question. The answer came swiftly and without qualification: TMP expects its takeover to sail through regulatory approval without any hitches.

Despite being in the grips of a regional shakeout of its own, Asian business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce is growing at a rate of 100 percent a year, according to a report released Thursday by the Boston Consulting Group. Dot-coms continue to fall by the wayside in Asia, BCG reported, but established companies are fueling e-commerce growth in the ...

News item: A startup-up Internet pure-play retailer announces it is giving away 10 bucks to every customer who shops at its site. A story from mid-1999? Guess again. This item is from a week ago. Right in the middle of 2001 So is the purveyor of this promotion some kind of e-commerce Rip Van Winkle, just kicking off the sheets after a nap of severa...

Hoping to head off the sharing of movies on the Internet before it reaches Napster-like proportions, seven major film studios have filed a lawsuit in California against Johnny Deep and several business partners backing the Internet file-swapping network Aimster Emily Kuttner, spokesperson for the Motion Picture Association of America, told the E-Co...

It truly is a Web. Today's e-commerce industry could not have been built without the interconnecting threads of partnerships, affiliate programs, marketing deals and other alliances. However, the Web remains vulnerable in spots. eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) partnered with Eppraisals.com, only to see that site go under two months later. Investments by Amazo...

Monster.com parent TMP Worldwide (Nasdaq: TMPW) said Friday it will acquire competitor HotJobs (Nasdaq: HOTJ) in a US$460 million deal that brings the top two Internet job search sites under the same roof. The deal, which has already been endorsed by both boards of directors, is expected to close sometime in the fourth quarter, assuming it receive...

The war to win the clicks of online travel shoppers continues to sizzle,with two major airlines touting their ability Friday to use theInternet to reach customers directly Northwest Airlines (Nasdaq: NWAC) said it would give customers the abilityto change their own flights through its Web site or through airport-basedInternet kiosks. The service is...

The shareholders of Webvan (Nasdaq: WBVN) are assembling Friday. It's not likely to be a happy occasion, since a share of the company's once impressive stock can now be had for about one thin U.S. dime. We'll have to wait and see how shareholders react. Annual meetings are usually fairly polite events. Maybe investors find it difficult to flog the...