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It seems hard to believe that six years ago, pundits were wondering if people would send their credit-card numbers over the Internet. Some said firmer controls were needed before e-commerce could take off. Then someone else made the brilliant observation that sending your credit-card number to Amazon.com via modem is no more or less risky than leaving a carbon copy of your credit card at the local drugstore. Everyone forgot their reservations, and consumers went on to spend tens of billions of dollars online last year...

PeopleSoft said Thursday that it has commenced its offer to buy software maker J.D. Edwards, forging ahead with the US$1.75 billion deal despite the best efforts of Oracle to squash the merger. PeopleSoft put its new stock-and-cash offer into effect, offering each J.D. Edwards shareholder $7.05 in cash, plus a fractional share of PeopleSoft stock....

It would be a gross understatement to say the Mac faithful are eagerly awaiting a new office productivity suite from Apple. For rumor sites and Mac-focused blogs, the arrival of such software would be a touchstone, a new battle royale in which to turn up one's nose at the leading productivity suite, made by that big software company in Redmond. We...

Oracle has upped the ante in its hostile bid to take control of PeopleSoft, boosting its all-cash offer by 22 percent, or US$1.2 billion. Oracle now says it will offer $19.50 per share for all outstanding shares of PeopleSoft stock, making the acquisition worth about $6.3 billion in total. The new offer represents a 14 percent premium over Tuesday...

It was the kind of day a relatively young, publicly traded dot-com dreams about when it's just a startup daring to dream. Netflix had come out the night before and said that instead of posting an expected quarterly loss, it would turn in a strong profit, its first ever. After-hours traders had bumped Netflix shares up 6 percent, and the people at ...

Microsoft has filed suit against 15 spammers in the United States and United Kingdom as part of a stepped-up campaign to work with government agencies and other Internet companies to can spam. The lawsuits claim the 15 defendants sent some 2 billion unwanted and deceptive e-mail messages to members of Microsoft's MSN service and its Web-based Hotm...

Enterprise search capabilities have evolved much like the known universe. Scientists tell us that it was not until several trillionths of a second after the Big Bang that gravity, matter and antimatter took shape and added complexity to everything. Likewise, although the Internet burst into the mainstream several years ago, many enterprises are only just beginning to consider how world-class search capabilities could benefit their in-house infrastructure...

Microsoft is backing away from the Web browser business. On the heels of its late May disclosure that it will cease developing new stand-alone versions of Internet Explorer for Windows, the company has announced it is abandoning the Mac browser market entirely. IE as a project is not dead -- new versions will be integrated into future Windows releases, starting with Longhorn in 2005 -- but from a user perspective, it is dormant, at least for now...

Microsoft has whittled the number of states appealing its antitrust settlement with the U.S. federal government to one, reaching a deal with West Virginia that will require the software giant to pay at least US$21 million in total to consumers, businesses and state agencies. West Virginia's decision to settle, which came just days before final wri...

Most CIOs at some point have asked: Should I outsource this IT project? The answer can be surprisingly complex, depending on the reasons for considering such a move According to Gartner principal analyst Bruce Caldwell, savings achieved through outsourcing can be significant -- in the 20 to 30 percent range. After all, outsourcing companies must pe...

Amid talk that U.S. adoption of broadband Internet access is about to slow down, Yahoo has forged an alliance with British Telecom (BT) to launch a co-branded broadband service in the United Kingdom. The BT deal mimics an agreement Yahoo inked last September with SBC Communications to market Yahoo-branded broadband service in the United States....

Ignoring a personal entreaty (and a 15 percent licensing discount) from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the city of Munich, Germany, decided recently to migrate its 14,000 PC desktop users from Windows to the Linux platform Laura DiDio, senior analyst of application infrastructure and software platforms at the Yankee Group, told the E-Commerce Times t...

They seem ubiquitous wherever consumer electronics, hardware and software are sold: the offers for rebates plastered on packaging, store displays and even cash register receipts It seems like a great deal, this offer of money back, especially when all the consumer has to do is send in a receipt and UPC code. However, some technology buyers have fou...

EBay has announced it will plunk down US$150 million to buy the remaining two-thirds of Chinese e-commerce site EachNet, which, like eBay, sells a wide range of items in both auction and fixed-price formats. The San Jose, California-based auction giant has held a minority stake in EachNet since last year The news propelled eBay stock past the $100 ...

The dot-com boom propelled few firms higher than Cisco Systems. Sparked by the proliferation of Internet-related companies, demand for its networking gear and switches skyrocketed. Cisco went along for the ride, churning out profits and sales growth and barely sweating competitors like Juniper Networks and JDS Uniphase. On the downside, the crash,...

Larry Ellison is by all accounts as charismatic and visionary as any other technology CEO. But he's kept a much lower profile of late than his counterparts All of that changed abruptly Friday morning, when Ellison threw a giant monkey wrench into the works of the business software industry. Oracle's unsolicited and, it seems, unwelcome bid to buy P...

Yahoo has fired the latest volley in the enterprise instant messaging turf war, saying it will work with WebEx Communications and BEA Systems to extend the capabilities of its Enterprise Messenger product. Specifically, Yahoo said it plans to add the ability to launch WebEx virtual conferences from personal desktops and to embed instant messaging ...

Despite a relatively strong first quarter, sales of personal computers will grow more slowly than expected this year and next, according to a report from IDC. The research firm said worldwide PC shipments rose 3 percent in the first quarter, with sales of US$42.2 billion, but what it called "limited economic improvement" forced it to temper its forecast for the next 18 months.

Apple Computer has accomplished a raft of goals since Steve Jobs returned to its helm in 1997. It has revolutionized the consumer PC with two generations of iMacs; pioneered the so-called digital hub concept, which gives consumers the ability to assemble movies as well as catalog and manipulate digital photographs; introduced the iPod, considered by many Mac and Windows users to be the best digital music player ever developed; and recently launched the iTunes Music Store, which allows users to pay for and download songs without being tied to complicated subscription agreements or limitations on how purchased media can be played...

Given the pace of business today, instant messaging seems like a natural fit for the global enterprise, enabling far-flung employees and contract workers to communicate in real-time throughout the workday. However, many enterprises are balking for a simple reason: IM and other peer-to-peer applications can pose serious security risks. That point w...