A while back, I attended a workshop for interactive marketers. The featured speaker was Jim Novo, a consultant with a plethora of direct and interactive marketing experience working on behalf of companies such as Cellular One, MBNA, and Comcast. Jim’s…
Toronto-based CRM provider Pivotal Corp. on Wednesday rejected a takeover bid from a Chinadotcom Corp. subsidiary because it included too many conditions. Pivotal said it would instead support an all-cash offer from VC outfit Oak Investment Partners which is valued…
Software maker Siebel Systems is going on the acquisition trail in its bid to broaden its appeal and reposition itself in the evolving customer relationship management (CRM) market. In a deal that could be worth as much as $70 million,…
I’m sure you read about it in the news recently. You’re likely to have heard about it by the water cooler. For a couple days, everyone talked about it. A company with an airtight customer privacy policy handed over the…
A few months ago, I wrote a column about the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) attacking alleged file sharers. The RIAA is forcing businesses that operate completely within the law to provide it with personal information on customers whom…
“Web Firms Choose Profit Over Privacy” was the title of a great article in The Washington Post earlier this month. It examines the privacy policies of a number of Web companies. In some cases, the Post found businesses clearly violate…
Pinpoint Inc. reportedly sued Amazon and six other major national retailers for allegedly violating its patents on software that assists online shoppers with their purchasing decisions. The Fort Worth, Texas-based company filed the suit Thursday in U.S. District Court in…
Enterprise software company SAP AG and Japanese electronics giant Sharp have teamed up in order to build applications that deliver real-time data across corporate networks to smaller mobile devices. The applications will be designed using open source operating system Linux…
Over the past four weeks, some better-known online news sites successfully deployed a strategy to drive down the average age of their users. The effort hinged on creating and delivering content targeted to younger Web users, those who typically avoid…
Congress struck a blow at the Pentagon last week. The House and Senate aligned to severely restrict a Pentagon program known as Total Information Awareness (TIA). TIA was developed to monitor personal health, financial, and travel information collected from commercial…