E-Commerce Minute

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E-Commerce Minute: Friday -- July 24, 2009

The E-Commerce Times -- E-Business Means Business
http://www.ecommercetimes.com
Part of the ECT News Network

Today's Headlines:
How Long Can AT&T Keep Its Beloved Ball and Chain?
Wielding the Technology Sword: Q&A With Overstock's Patrick Byrne
The iPhone's Not the Cause of Apple's Success - It's the Effect
Don't Trade Customer Satisfaction for Call Center Efficiency
Amazon Sinks Close to $900M Into Zappos Deal
AT&T's Golden Goose May Turn Out to Be an Albatross

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Podcast
How Long Can AT&T Keep Its Beloved Ball and Chain? (11:50 minutes)
In this episode: Amazon pays close to $1 billion for shoe vendor Zappos;
rumors of a Yahoo/Microsoft deal resurface; Apple has its best
non-holiday quarter ever; AT&T sees profit drop by 15 percent; Palm
releases its Mojo webOS dev kit; Nokia plans to offer the N86 in U.S.
markets; Verizon swears off long-term handset exclusivity; report rails
on the state of U.S. cybersecurity; RIM makes a BlackBerry app for Mac
users; Barnes & Noble challenges Amazon in e-books.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/shared/audio/ect-recap-2009-07-24.mp3

Today's Story Highlights

How Long Can AT&T Keep Its Beloved Ball and Chain?
Empty pockets and tight budgets are in style this season, but it looks
like Apple missed the memo. The company reported an unfashionably
prosperous third fiscal quarter, growing its revenue nearly 12 percent
year over year to $8.34 billion. Its gross margins shot up to 36.3
percent, compared to last year's 34.8.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/67682.html

Wielding the Technology Sword: Q&A With Overstock's Patrick Byrne
Overstock.com is a retail site that sells products in just about any
consumer category, from clothes to electronics to home goods to
furniture. Not surprisingly, it hid a major skid last fall when the U.S.
economy went into seizure. "We were growing 27 percent through the first
part of the year," CEO Patrick Byrne told the E-Commerce Times.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/67678.html

The iPhone's Not the Cause of Apple's Success - It's the Effect
To the delight of Apple fans everywhere, the company is kicking butt and
taking names. There's really no way around that statement, and Apple's
most recent report for its fiscal 2009 third quarter backs it up. The
company in Cupertino posted revenue of $8.34 billion and a net quarterly
profit of $1.23 billion.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/67677.html

Don't Trade Customer Satisfaction for Call Center Efficiency
Increasing contact center efficiency has always been a clear path to
cutting costs, regardless of economic conditions. Increasing
productivity and doing more with existing resources are now more
important than ever, but cutting call center costs does not have to
result in poorer customer service.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/67676.html

Amazon Sinks Close to $900M Into Zappos Deal
Amazon is making its biggest acquisition yet, having inked an agreement
to acquire online shoe retailer Zappos for close to $900 million in
stock and cash. Under the terms of the agreement, Amazon will acquire
Zappos shares in exchange for approximately 10 million shares of Amazon
common stock, valued at approximately $807 million.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/67673.html

AT&T's Golden Goose May Turn Out to Be an Albatross
AT&T's second-quarter earnings came out Wednesday, and Apple's iPhone
was clearly the hero of the day. However, a potential villain also looms
offstage: Apple's iPhone, which appears to be weighing down the
carrier's profits. The complicated nature of the relationship between
device maker and carrier over the hot-selling smartphone was highlighted
as analysts peppered phone company executives with questions.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/67672.html

About the E-Commerce Times
The E-Commerce Times is a free online publication that provides
daily news, special reports and success stories in addition to an
e-commerce products and services guide. The publication's tagline
is "E-Business Means Business," and its content includes
information on a wide variety of e-business topics, such as data
storage, network security, databases, B2B and B2C e-commerce, the IT
job market and the maneuvers of high-tech businesses.

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