COVAD AND THE DSL DEBACLE

DSL was supposed to be the future of the Internet – the technology that would bring broadband to the masses and fuel the technologies that depend on high-speed access. It didn’t happen that way. This article describes what happened to Covad and the entire...

AOL TIME WARNER LIVING DOWN TO EXPECTATIONS

When the AOL TIme Warner merger was being evaluated, one important issue concerned “open access” to the new company’s cable systems. If AOL Time Warner refused to let anyone else use its cable systems to deliver Internet access, then it would be in a...

MICROSOFT & SMALL BUSINESSES

Microsoft has revamped its bCentral web site, a collection of services and resources for small businesses. One interesting example is the offer to design and host a web site from scratch for $399. That’s the price for a custom design with a generic but...

BORDERS HANDS ONLINE OPERATIONS TO AMAZON

Did you see that Borders is handing its web site to Amazon? Borders will close its own site, and Amazon will open a new site that features both logos, with Amazon essentially taking all responsibility for inventory and order fulfillment. At one time it was thought...

GATEWAY PULLING OUT OF OFFICEMAX

Tough year! Gateway is struggling with slumping sales and a fuzzy business plan. It’s closing a bunch of its own Gateway Country stores, and it just announced that it’s going to withdraw from 1000 OfficeMax stores.

WORDPERFECT DEATH WATCH

Corel’s quarterly results showed a trivially small profit, but sales have completely collapsed for the WordPerfect suite. “Word processing and productivity sales plummeted from $22.1 million in Q1 2000 to $11.6 in Q1 2001.” I wasn’t able to...