Articles by Keith Regan

eBay has changed the payment policy for its Australian site to require all transactions to be completed using its PayPal payment platform, a move that has outraged users Down Under and one that reportedly could lead to more changes around the world. eBay announced last month that it would make the change to PayPal-only listings, with the switch be...

Sprint Nextel posted results Monday that show the third-largest telecommunications firm continues to struggle amid high rates of customer defection and financial losses of more than a half billion dollars Released just days after Sprint announced an ambitious plan to partner with Clearwire on a national WiMax wireless broadband company, the company...

Bronto Software is no dinosaur Founded by former Red Hat executives and launched in 2002, the e-mail marketing software provider has certainly seen its industry and marketplace evolve and change dramatically around it....

The state of Texas may be the latest to take a bite out of Amazon's bottom line by assessing sales taxes on past purchases by state residents Texas tax officials are reviewing the taxable status of Amazon purchases after an inquiry from the Dallas Morning News, which asked why the e-tailer appeared not to be collecting sales taxes from Lone Star St...

The long-running debate over net neutrality took another turn Thursday when two lawmakers introduced a bill that would make it a violation of antitrust law for broadband providers to discriminate against different types of content in routing traffic on their networks John Conyers Jr., a Democrat from Michigan who is also chairman of the House Judic...

In a move sure to renew debate over how broadband access should be sold, Comcast is reportedly mulling a cap on how much data a customer buying its basic high-speed Internet access package can use each month Comcast, the No. 2 provider of high-speed Web access in the U.S., would establish a preset monthly data usage level and then charge a fee for ...

The Internet Archive revealed Wednesday that the FBI dropped an effort to secretly obtain information about the online activities of one of the digital library's users The Archive revealed that it had been served a National Security Letter by the FBI last year about one of its patrons. The San Francisco-based nonprofit organization prevailed after ...

Sprint will merge its broadband wireless operations with WiMax firm Clearwire in a multifaceted deal that will create a US$14.5 billion venture to expand high-speed wireless connectivity across the U.S In addition to merging the two companies' broadband wireless operations, the deal calls for Google, Intel through Intel Capital and cable companies ...

As a small brick-and-mortar jeweler with retail stores in Central Florida, Goldsmith Jewelry may seem like an unlikely potential e-tail star Goldsmith, however, has had early success by using blogging to drive traffic to its Web site and gain exposure for its fledging Internet store. The company is committed to continuing and refining those efforts...

Chief executive officers worldwide believe major change is coming to the global economy and their businesses, according to IBM's biennial study of CEOs. The executives are are also eager to find ways to keep happy consumers who are increasingly information-savvy and who expect the businesses they buy from to be more socially responsible and green. ...

A closely watched meeting of the Microsoft board of directors has reportedly ended with CEO Steve Ballmer given the authorization -- and possibly the extra cash -- needed to do what it takes to get the Yahoo acquisition done or decide to drop it Microsoft's board met Wednesday evening in Redmond, Wash. There was no formal word from the software gia...

eBay's unusual legal dispute with executives from Craigslist stems from eBay's decision to bring its Kijiji alternative to the United States. eBay disclosed the details of the spat in a filing in a Delaware court, where it filed the case, known as "eBay Domestic Holdings v. Craig Newmark, et al" last month. Newmark is the founder and namesake of t...

Media giant Time Warner plans to sell off its remaining 84 percent stake in its recently spun-off cable company. The company unveiled the strategy as it posted weaker profit and its AOL Web portal grew modestly in advertising revenue Time Warner's net profit for the first quarter was US$771 million, or 21 cents per share, down 36 percent from the $...

More than a year after it shut down The WB Television Network, Warner Bros. said Monday it is bringing back the brand as an advertising-supported, video-on-demand site Warner will launch a beta version of TheWB.com sometime early next month as part of a larger push to capitalize on new channels for distributing video content....

Given the powerful double-digit growth of e-commerce during the first decade of the industry, few merchants worried that a payment alternative to credit cards or the well-established PayPal was needed More recently, however, as e-commerce growth rates slow, the fast-growing, credit card-free alternative Bill Me Later has proven that merchants and c...

Microsoft's three-week deadline for Yahoo to initiate formal talks about a merger has passed, putting the software giant in the position of having to decide how aggressive to get in its bid to take over the Web portal The three-week deadline that CEO Steve Ballmer set in a letter to Yahoo earlier in the month passed on Saturday without any addition...

Telecommunications giant Verizon Communications reported a strong profit boost for its first quarter as growth in its wireless business and its fledgling video service helped compensate for losses in its traditional home phone segment The numbers from Verizon and those from competitor AT&T, which reported strong results last week, suggest the major...

Brushing aside concerns about a drop in paid click rates and sliding past estimates, Google posted results Thursday showing not only that it remains king of the online advertising space but that it can continue to grow sales and profits in uncertain economic times Revenue at the search giant rose 42 percent year-over-year to US$5.2 billion in the f...

Benefiting from strong overseas sales and a weak U.S. dollar, IBM posted strong quarterly results and raised its guidance, adding to what's becoming a winning streak for technology stocks On the heels of a strong report from fellow tech bellwether Intel, IBM beat expectations for its first quarter, with a 26 percent jump in profit....

Web auction giant eBay posted strong first-quarter results Wednesday despite weaker-than-expected growth in buying activity in core markets such as the U.S. and the UK eBay posted net income of US$460 million, or 34 cents per share, up 22 percent from the $377 million it earned in the same quarter in 2007. Revenue was up 24 percent to $2.19 billion...