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Sun Turns Its Gaze to the Cloud
Sun Microsystems has acquired Belgian cloud computing company Q-layer for an undisclosed price. Q-layer makes software that automates the deployment and management of corporate IT infrastructure such as servers, computers and Web-based applications in both public and private clouds.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 08-Jan-2009 00:02

Satyam Chair Confesses Stunning Financial Fraud
India's IT outsourcing industry received a shock Wednesday with the news that Satyam Computer Services Chairman Ramalinga Raju had falsified corporate earnings and assets. Raju inflated the cash on the company's balance sheet by nearly $1 billion, overstated September 2008 quarterly revenues by 76 percent and profits by 97 percent.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 07-Jan-2009 21:11

Intel Warns Investors to Brace for Painful Q4 Report
Chip giant Intel has once again preannounced dire financial results -- yet another sign of the year-long U.S. recession's heavy toll on the technology industry. Intel said Wednesday that fourth-quarter revenue will come in at $8.2 billion, down 20 percent from the third quarter and down 23 percent year-over-year.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 07-Jan-2009 20:50

Second Cut Is Deepest for Orbitz
Online travel agency Orbitz Worldwide on Wednesday said it named Barney Harford as president and chief executive and added that it would cut costs an additional $20 million to $25 million a year. Harford, 37, who has worked in the Internet travel business at rival Expedia, replaces Steve Barnhart as Orbitz CEO.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 07-Jan-2009 18:30

Time Warner Takes Its Lumps, Predicts a Loss
Media company Time Warner said Wednesday that it expects to record a fourth-quarter $25 billion impairment charge for its cable, publishing and AOL units that will lead to an operating loss for the period. New York-based Time Warner also anticipates a full-year loss, down from a prior outlook for a profit between $1.04 and $1.07 per share.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 07-Jan-2009 18:10

China Doles Out 3G Licenses
China assigned third-generation mobile phone licenses Wednesday to three carriers in a long-awaited step that is expected to prompt $41 billion in spending on new equipment. Licenses were granted to China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 07-Jan-2009 17:56

Negotiating the Domain Name Thicket
Royal Cummings sells bobblehead dolls over the Internet. It's a specific product that demands a specific address for Internet shoppers. So, when Cummings decided to get into the burgeoning bobblehead business, he decided the best way to break through the clutter of online bobblehead buyers and sellers would be to secure the most relevant name possible for his Web site.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 07-Jan-2009 13:00

Time to Build Your Communities
Happy New Year! Let's be counterintuitive for a moment, shall we? We're in a recession and we all know it. Traditionally (and sadly) in an economic downturn, when companies seek to lower their expenses, they cut their marketing budgets -- and why not? Marketing costs money.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 07-Jan-2009 13:00

Xbox 360 Weathers 2008 With Record Sales
Microsoft announced Monday that 2008 was the best year ever for its Xbox 360 video game system, despite a year-long U.S. recession that has seen consumer spending plummet. The company's worldwide lead over rival Sony's PlayStation 3 widened by 8 million units in 2008, while its total number of 360s sold since the device hit the market three years ago expanded to 28 million.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 07-Jan-2009 00:04

Logitech Bends to Economy's Ill Winds
Logitech is retreating from its fiscal 2009 forecast and preparing to trim about 15 percent of its global workforce in preparation for what is looking to be a grim retail year. The Switzerland-based company employs 9,000 workers and manufactures mice, webcams and other computer peripherals. Demand for such devices has taken a nosedive in recent months.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 06-Jan-2009 21:10

Sustainability Lessons From India: Q&A With Environmental Consultant Trudy Heller
An American's first impressions of India often include images of alternate approaches to trash management, intermittent electrical power supplies and issues of environmental sustainability. In this interview with Trudy Heller, those approaches are seen from the perspective of Heller's work designing products for environmental sustainability and providing training to executives in environmental management.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 06-Jan-2009 14:00

Where the Tech Jobs Are, Part 2
If history were a reliable guide, a job hunter would stay as far away from the telecom field as possible. Ten years ago, telecoms could not hire enough people to keep up with the demand. The industry was investing millions, if not billions, in telephony and Internet infrastructure. Then the dot-com bubble burst, and many telecom staffers went on the dole for a year or more.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 06-Jan-2009 13:00

Rumor Mills Buzz Over Qualcomm-Chipped iPhone Nano
Qualcomm Chief Executive Paul Jacobs generally has the latest and greatest cell phones. But he's never owned the uber-trendy Apple iPhone. "Not until they put a Qualcomm chip in it," Jacobs said in a September interview. It could soon be time for Jacobs' first Apple phone. The company is widely rumored to be planning an iPhone nano, a smaller touchscreen version of its popular phone.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 06-Jan-2009 13:00

Make Customer Service Local and Strong
As the economy is forcing companies to cut costs -- or at least scaring them into doing so -- one important aspect of business is being left behind in the panic: customer service. For the past few decades it has taken a backseat because of budget cuts, outsourcing, and the loss of talented staff. As companies go down to the bare minimums this coming year, sadly this trend might continue.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 06-Jan-2009 13:00

Telecom Shows Signs of Buckling Under Recessionary Pressures
The year-long U.S. recession has started to take its toll on the telecomm sector. AT&T and Verizon shares were hit hard Monday after being downgraded by Bernstein Research. The firm downgraded Verizon from market perform to underperform and AT&T from outperform to market perform. Verizon stock was down 7.16 percent to $32.15 per share and AT&T stock was down 4.35 percent to $28.15 in late-day trading on Monday.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 06-Jan-2009 01:22

LG to Show Off Netflix-Ready High-Def TVs at CES
Netflix is coming to a high-definition LG Electronics television near you. The two companies on Monday announced an extension of an existing partnership whereby LG will sell Internet-ready TVs capable of streaming content from a catalog of 12,000 Netflix movies. The service is already available on one of LG's Blu-ray disc players.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 05-Jan-2009 23:00

Jobs Responds to Health Scuttlebutt
After several months of macabre speculation in the tech industry and on Wall Street, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has set the record straight. Yes, the cancer survivor has been losing weight. The reason is a hormone imbalance for which he is now receiving treatment. Jobs made the announcement via a letter that was posted to the Apple Web site.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 05-Jan-2009 20:53

Where the Tech Jobs Are, Part 1
Despite the daily onslaught of grim economic news, the need for skilled information technology staff remains stable, according to the Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report, released earlier this month. Twelve percent of chief information officers polled in the survey said they planned to expand their IT departments in the first quarter of 2009.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 05-Jan-2009 13:00

The Recession, the Cloud and Salesforce.com
Google, Yahoo, Cisco, Intel, AMD and other companies are slashing employees and cutting expenses. And then there's Salesforce.com. During Thanksgiving week, the San Francisco-based software company began driving a big white truck -- a traveling billboard -- up and down Highway 101 as part of a major recruiting push.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 05-Jan-2009 13:00

E-Commerce Law Briefs: Week of December 29, 2008
Online sales reports from November and December reveal that Amazon.com had its best sales season ever. Amid one of the worst holiday seasons in history, e-commerce sales were an "area of relative strength" and down only 2.3% from last year.Wikipedia has raised $6.2 million necessary to operate the site through...
Source : E-Commerce Law | 04-Jan-2009 16:04

Will Work for Praise: The Web's Free-Labor Economy
It's dawn at a Los Angeles apartment overlooking the Hollywood Hills. Laura Sweet, a graphic designer in her early 40s, sits at a computer and begins to surf the Net. She searches intently, unearthing such bizarre treasures for sale as necklaces for trees and tattoo-covered pigs. As usual, she posts them on a shopping site called "ThisNext.com."
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 04-Jan-2009 13:00

A Modest Blogging Proposal
It all started with a simple question from Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang late in the afternoon on Friday, Dec. 12. A few days earlier, blogger Chris Brogan had written about his decision to accept $500 from Kmart to find out what's cool to buy at the discount retailer and then write about it.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 04-Jan-2009 13:00

Changing Times Threaten to Stop the Presses in Chicago
A little more than a century ago, Chicago boasted 11 daily English-language newspapers. The fierce competition among them, immortalized in the 1928 play "The Front Page," even turned bloody at times, and that drive to outdo one another led to 35 Pulitzer Prizes, journalism's highest honor.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 04-Jan-2009 13:00

7 Experts Paint Enterprise IT Landscape for 2009
Welcome to the latest BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Edition, Vol. 35, a periodic discussion and dissection of software, services, SOA and compute cloud-related news and events with a panel of IT analysts. In this episode, our guests make their top five predictions for IT in 2009.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 04-Jan-2009 13:00

Move Over Kindle - E-Books Hit Cell Phones
Adam Parks is an avid reader of digital books, but you won't find him downloading the 20 or so titles he reads each year onto an electronic book device like Amazon's Kindle. Instead, Parks flips through pages -- Web-site design manuals and Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" are recent favorites -- on his trusted iPhone.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 03-Jan-2009 13:00

What's Lighting the Fire Under Mobile Broadband?
Growth of the mobile broadband market happens along two major dimensions: subscribers and traffic. Specific growth drivers for both of these categories vary by geographic region, but in general, drivers can be divided into three major categories that are applicable to all the regions: evolution of useful mobile applications, carrier pricing and bundling strategies and replacement use cases for fixed-line broadband.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 02-Jan-2009 13:00

How to Shave Costs With Precision
The global financial marketplace has recently become quite volatile, as fears of an American recession affect economies all over the world. Such fears can be especially dangerous for businesses. In times like these, many top managers panic and make unwise decisions such as firing quality employees and slashing important programs.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 02-Jan-2009 13:00

Most Popular E-Commerce Law Posts of 2008
Happy New Year! Here are the most popular E-Commerce Law posts of 2008:"David Lat Has a Stupid Fat Face" (January 24, 2008)Take Control of Your Online Reputation (January 28, 2008)JuicyCampus May Be the Next Internet Defamation Battleground (February 19, 2008)Ninth Circuit: Roommates.com Not Entirely Protected by Section 230 (April 4,...
Source : E-Commerce Law | 01-Jan-2009 05:59

Dell Dumps 2 Top Execs in Major Reorg
Dell, the No. 2 PC maker in the U.S., has fired two top executives as part of a major restructuring designed to help close the gap with its largest competitor, HP. Chief Marketing Officer Mark Jarvis has stepped down; President of Global Operations Mike Cannon will retire, effective Jan. 31. Cannon will be replaced by Jeff Clarke, currently head of Dell's business client product group.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 31-Dec-2008 21:24

Online Holiday Sales Shrink for the First Time Ever
Online retail saw a 3 percent year-over-year drop in sales between Nov. 1 and Dec. 23, according to research firm comScore, as economic hardships combined with a calendar that shortened consumers' usual buying period. The decline marked the first dip in online sales since comScore began tracking the figures in 2001.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 31-Dec-2008 20:00

Live Chat's Not Just for Sales Anymore: Q&A With Conversive CEO Robert Williams
For many e-tailers, online chat is a closer. Packaged and offered up to site visitors as a service, it provides an opportunity to close a sale when an uncertain customer wavers. Retailers were early adopters of this technology precisely because of the distinct return on investment, Conversive CEO Robert Williams told CRM Buyer.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 31-Dec-2008 13:00

The Free E-Commerce Ride Is Over
Legend has it that the inventor of chess was so wise that when the king asked him to name his reward, he replied that he only wanted one grain of wheat for the first square, two grains for the second, four grains for the third, eight grains for the fourth and so on up to the sixty-four squares on the board.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 31-Dec-2008 13:00

AMD Makes Deeper Slash in Workforce
Advanced Micro Devices said Monday that it cut 600 jobs in the third quarter -- 100 more than it indicated in the guidance provided to Wall Street early last fall, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 100 extra job cuts resulted in $70 million in restructuring costs, rather than the $50 million the struggling chip company said it would take when the cuts were first announced.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 31-Dec-2008 00:42

Survey: Customers Give E-Tailers Low Service Marks
E-commerce has certainly not been immune from the recession battering the U.S. economy, but for reasons that can only be guessed at, most of the leading e-tailers have not stepped up their efforts to retain customers by providing improved service, according to a recent customer satisfaction survey.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 31-Dec-2008 00:02

Sony Can Make the PS3 for Less, but Does It Matter?
Sony has drastically reduced the production costs associated with its PlayStation 3 video game console by 35 percent, according to information technology researcher iSuppli. The latest generation of the PS3 costs just under $450 per unit to produce, down 35 percent from the prior generation's production cost of nearly $700 per unit, iSuppli said.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 30-Dec-2008 23:04

What, Me Worry? Consumers Still Cutting the Landline Cord
Even when his cell phone offered no bars on Sunday and he had no other way to get a dial tone, Carlton Smith did not second-guess his 21st Century decision to cancel traditional landline phone service in his house. Smith was one of the many victims of a service outage that affected AT&T Wireless customers across the Midwest all day Sunday.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 30-Dec-2008 18:39

Rescue Plan in Works for Taiwan-Based Powerchip
Taiwan's economics ministry said on Tuesday it asked DRAM chipmaker Powerchip to resubmit plans for a company turnaround as the government tries to engineer a rescue for the struggling sector. Powerchip, along with other major DRAM makers in Taiwan, recently submitted plans for turning around its operations, after posting massive losses in recent quarters amid the sector's worst ever downturn.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 30-Dec-2008 18:34

Payday Lenders Thrive on Wild Web
CashNetUSA.com isn't your typical financial-services business. For one, at a time when 140,000 industry jobs have been lost nationally year to date, the Chicago-based online payday lender is hiring. For another, the headquarters' vibe conjures up the freewheeling tech-boom era.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 30-Dec-2008 18:25

4Sale4Now.com: Watch the Price Drop, Then Pounce
For those who like to feel like they've gotten a bargain whenever they make a purchase, 4Sale4Now.com could be a dream come true. The site lets retailers discount their products and services regularly, and it lets buyers to monitor these discounts and buy when they're deep enough to suit their fancy. It's akin to an auction model, but unlike sites like eBay, the prices on 4Sale4Now always go down.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 30-Dec-2008 13:00

Bundled Service, Unbundled Customer Service
Memo to telecom service providers: "We never thanked you, but you did a great job offering us consolidated billing. It is hard to remember now, as for the last few years you have been so aggressive in promoting bundled services, but five years ago, this was a major pain point. Three bills for ISP, cable and telephone, and usually three different due dates as well."
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 30-Dec-2008 13:00

UK Official Pushes Hollywood-Style Ratings for Web Sites
Ever since she found out her niece was reading her Web site, Jen Singer began making sure the majority of her content was G-rated -- appropriate for a general audience. "Even though MommaSaid.net is a Web site for mothers, it appears that it's popular with quite a few tween girls, too," she told the E-Commerce Times.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 30-Dec-2008 00:02

Microsoft Mulls Metered Model for PCs
Microsoft first talked about pay-as-you-go computing years ago, but a recent patent publication suggests the software giant is moving ahead with an alternative strategy for expanding PC access around the world. The application, filed on Dec. 25 with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, provides a glimpse of what could be Microsoft's vision of the future of computing.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 29-Dec-2008 22:59

Amazon Sales Soar Above Holiday Retail Slump
Online retail giant Amazon.com announced Friday that it had the strongest holiday shopping season in its history. Customers ordered more than 6.3 million items worldwide on its peak shopping day, Dec. 15, which works out to about 72.9 items ordered per second, Amazon said.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 29-Dec-2008 20:59

Small Firm Hammers Heavies With Thumbnail Patent Suit
A small networking company is suing three tech titans for patent infringement. Cygnus Systems has filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Arizona, alleging that Microsoft, Google and Apple have all violated a patent Cygnus received in March 2008 on the use of document preview icon, or so-called thumbnail, technology.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 29-Dec-2008 20:56

A Better E-Commerce Site: Is a Little Lipstick the Trick?
As e-commerce gets more sophisticated and consumer expectations continue to rise, many retailers are considering prettying up their existing Web sites with improved graphics or new features in order to make them more attractive to consumers. While such enhancements can make your site more appealing in the near term, they won't change the makeup of your online store.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 29-Dec-2008 13:00

Broadening the Contact Center Platform: Q&A With Avaya VP Bob Lyons
This summer, Bob Lyons was tapped to lead Avaya's contact center division. The new general manager and vice president of customer service applications joined the company at a crucial time. It was in the midst of reorganizing its operations around three business units: the contact center, unified communications, and small and mid-sized business applications.
Source : ecommercetimes.com | 29-Dec-2008 13:00