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Despite all the bluster and hype spewing from the mouths of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the late 1990s, they could not create what they so desperatelydesired -- a New Economy ...

One company started as an incubator to hatch fledgling onlinecompanies. The other invested in new and already-established Internet firms. They both had two things in common. ...

The U.S. economy was not kind to offline retailers during the 2002 holiday season:They saw the smallest revenue gains in more than 30 years. But e-commerce, which tended to overpromise and underperform during the Internet bubble as many Web-only outfits stumbled over fulfillment and customer service hurdles, showed considerable strength in the same holiday period. Is online selling in the midst of a renaissance, and will it emerge with a new starring role as the economy recovers?...

As tenures at companies go, Steve Case's trajectory at AOL was similar to that of a bullet fired straight up -- it ascends at a fast rate but eventually plummets ...

E-commerce, once the domain of "geek types" or consumers with highdisposable incomes, has hit the mainstream. The U.S. Census Bureau says e-commerce spending increased by more than 34 percent year-over-year to US$11.1 billion from the third quarter of 2001 to the same period in 2002. And sales jumped 24 percent year-over-year, to $13.7 billion, in the 2002 holiday season...

It has been a long fall from the top. Back in the late 1990s, Internet companies were the darlings of a starstruck stock market. Pundits proclaimed the Internet would connect everyone and change everything. Consumers would be able to buy any good or service online, at any time, from anywhere. The fact that many companies' business plans were full of holes did not seem to concern many observers.

As 2003 dawns, several signs indicate that the U.S. economy is starting to improve. Among them is the Conference Board's index of leading indicators, which rose solidly in November. With those welcome tidings in mind, some workers in the e-commerce sector may be hoping for a reprise of the late 1990s, when jobs were plentiful, stock options were actually worth something, andthe general high-tech atmosphere was highly caffeinated.

The speed of information delivery is continually increasing. Most people who work in office environments have had access to broadband Internet connections for years, and more home users than ever before can surf the Web at speeds that eclipse those of the fastest dial-up modems ...

As more companies pursue ever-scarcer revenues in this slow economy, they are putting more emphasis on getting the word out about their presence. To rise above the clutter, those firms may be thinking about moving beyond traditional marketing channels to attract more attention -- and customers. But how far should companies go in their online efforts?...

The information technology industry is emerging from what many are callingthe worst downturn in the sector's history. In an effort to weather the storm, many high-tech companies have cut prices and even introduced special financing deals to help move inventory and generate revenue ...

The dot-com landscape is littered with the wreckage of e-commerce companies that did not survive the Internet shakeout. The bright side of this bleak reality is that those e-businesses still standing are far more likely to be profitable than their deceased brethren were. The question now is: What lies ahead for these survivors? ...

The general malaise in the economy and in the high-tech sector in particular has been especially hard on the telecommunications industry. Recent signs, though, have pointed toward a slow but welcome recovery for high-tech, raising the question of whether the uptick will spell relief for the telecom industry as well. Unfortunately, the answer is probably not...

For enterprises that want to cut IT costs, one answer is to ship some high-tech work overseas, to places like India, Singapore, the Philippines and even Russia or China ...

Thanks to the weak economy and a shorter-than-usual holiday shopping season, analysts who focus on the overall retail market have said the onlyforeseeable aspect of this year's holiday sales is that they will beunpredictable. ...

As the battle for online revenue extends into 2002's shortened holiday-shopping season, some e-commerce firms are relying on content other than product details to keep visitors coming back to their sites -- and buying products.Specifically, companies may be considering whether to post uncensored reviews of the products they sell as a way to add unique content and build a sense of community.

As the U.S. economy continues to traverse shaky ground, companies are askingmore of their IT departments. "Overwhelmingly, what companies are doing ismaintaining the existing IT capability and trying to run that more efficiently with fewer people, fewer resources and fewer inputs into the system," Yankee Group program manager Andy Efstathiou told the E-Commerce Times...

Dell is not a company thatrests on its laurels. It has climbed back on top of the PC sales heap just a few months after the HP-Compaq merger displaced it, and it has extended its brand name into the printer and PDA markets to help drive its bottom line ...