Filed under: Company News , Technology , Columns , People , Earnings , Wal-Mart Stores , Target Corp. , Amazon.com, Inc. EBay ( EBAY ) is a Web pioneer, having built a multi-billion dollar business out of allowing people to essentially put garage sales on the Internet. That simple idea led to fast growth more than a decade ago and helped define what was possible online for others companies that followed. The company’s IPO in 1998 turned founder Pierre Omidyar and eBay President Jeffrey Skoll into instant billionaires. Fast-forward to 2009 and the 1990s Internet darling is steering through turbulence. The company seems to be want to be more an online retailer and less an online auction site. If it makes such a move, if will have to fight online retailers such as Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and Zappos and their impeccable customer service. It will also have to take on formidable brick-and-mortar retailers like WalMart ( WMT ) and Target ( TGT ) which are focusing more on online sales. Why does eBay want to join a battle it’s not likely to win? Continue reading Massucci’s Take: EBay’s plan to be more retailer than auctioneer is one risky bid Massucci’s Take: EBay’s plan to be more retailer than auctioneer is one risky bid originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Massucci’s Take: EBay’s plan to be more retailer than auctioneer is one risky bid

Filed under: Energy , People President Barack Obama is trumpeting the stern criticism he gave the military generals who hold dominion over Burma, the resource-rich South Asian nation now known as Myanmar, at a meeting of Asian leaders on Sunday. The Burmese junta is one of the most loathed regimes in the world — a posse of paranoid, megalomaniacal cadres who kill, torture and repress their people with impunity. A throwback to the 20th century’s failed Marxist revolutionary movements, the junta relies on Burma’s vast resource wealth to maintain its grip on power. And it is precisely that wealth — which the generals capitalize on through bustling trade with China and India — that allows them to ignore Obama’s entreaties for reform. Continue reading Burma’s oil-rich generals can afford to ignore Obama on Suu Kyi Burma’s oil-rich generals can afford to ignore Obama on Suu Kyi originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Burma’s oil-rich generals can afford to ignore Obama on Suu Kyi