Rough Drafts

The WSJ reports this morning that VeriSign is acquiring domain-name registrar Network Solutions: VeriSign to Buy Network Solutions In a $20.75 Billion All-Stock Deal

Controversial code governing the software industry and software consumers’ rights looks like it’s going through: “One of the key provisions in UCITA is the transformation of what is now a sale

Yesterday, Wells Fargo and eBay teamed up to put some oomph behind eBay’s Billpoint service, which lets individuals collect payments from other individuals via credit card. Now, financial service companies X.com and PayPal are merging. And First Union dropped its suit against Paytrust. The future is

The U.S. Commerce Department yesterday released its online retail sales figures. Their estimate: $5.3 billion in sales during Q4 1999, or about 1% of overall retail sales. That’s a bit lower than estimates from research firms like Jupiter and Forrester. The Commerce Dept.’s figures don’t include tra

Credit card fraud is a much bigger problem for online merchants than it is for shoppers. The Industry Standard’s long story on the topic goes a long way towards explaining why — and it describes the credit card processing system in great detail along the way. It’s a well-researched article, and — ex

DoubleClick continues to apologize, and has promised not to link personal data with browsing trails until the U.S. government comes up with clear privacy standards. That should be about never, I figure. DoubleClick, Yielding on Privacy, Promises to Wait on Linking of Data

“Data spillage” discovered at Quicken.com — data that customers entered into mortgage calculators got sent to DoubleClick. Intuit has plugged the leak — but there may be similar leaks at Travelocity, Buy.com, and other sites. Intuit plugs leaks to DoubleClick

Keiretsus, zaibatsus: While these corporate syndicates may tread around the fuzzy edges of anti-trust regulations in the U.S., commentator Aaron Goldberg says they were responsible for Japan’s exceedingly rapid postwar industrial growth — and may do the same for the Internet economy. Upside Ebiz: In

DoubleClick just can’t seem to get a break — AltaVista is starting to limit the information they share with their erstwhile partner, while Kozmo.com is looking for a new ad-serving partner. DoubleClick held at arm’s length by partners AltaVista, Kozmo Distance Themselves From DoubleClick Over Privac

CMGI building a vertically integrated online service (access + content)? Maybe this is the first step: THE REGISTER: Lycos comes to US market with free Net access

First Union Bank wants to keep third-party online financial service companies (like Yodlee or Paytrust) from accessing customer bank account information — even when the customers specifically request it. SF Chronical writer Hal Plotkin gets mad, justifiably, at this latest example of the banking ind

Big online B2B retail marketplace, backed by Oracle and Sears: Oracle to Build Market Site for Sears and French Chain (free registration required) Oracle, Sears, Carrefour to team up on biz-to-biz exchange