Online book and music seller Amazon.com said late Sunday that it planned to launch an auction service that would put it in direct competition with the likes of eBay and OnSale. The company did not disclose further information about the service and a spokesman was not immediately available to comment further. But the move is in line with Amazon.com's plans to diversify out of its core music, video, and book product line.
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Also:
Greenmountain.com seeks IPO
Blast merges with Disney parent site
China likes CDMA
Covad extends small-biz DSL
Web-based email, everywhere
Earlier this month, Amazon.com (AMZN) began advertising Dell Computer products – and Dell in turn advertised Amazon's products – in a marketing pact that was expected to be replicated elsewhere in the e-commerce arena. In late February, the company took a bold move outside of its core franchise by purchasing a 40 percent stake in privately held Drugstore.com, which offers prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs over the Web.
Online auction sites have benefitted from the growing number of people using the Internet for commerce. Ebay's stock (EBAY) has risen some 274 percent from mid-November 1998 to $154.50, where it closed Friday on Nasdaq. OnSale (ONSL), which has recently expanded into offering wholesale computer products, has risen 64 percent since mid-November to US$35.38, where it closed Friday.
- Back to topGreenmountain.com seeks IPO: The self-styled environmentally friendly energy company filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public as GreenMountain.com.
The South Burlington, Vermont-based company plans to offer $600 million worth of its common stock. It did not disclose how many shares were in the offering or provide an anticipated price range for them.
Proceeds from the offering will be used for GreenMountain.com brand development and marketing, product development, enhancements to its Web site, and potential strategic acquisitions as the company morphs into an online marketer of all things green.
4. Back to top Blast merges with Disney parent site: Disney brought the kids back into the family fold on Monday, merging its children's service Blast Online with parent site Disney.com.
Disney ([DIS](https://www.wired.com/stocks_quotes.asp?symbol=dis)) characterized the consolidation as a broadening of its offerings for kids, saying that subscribers of the now renamed Club Blast have access to "the best features and services from both sites ... through the use of a [single URL](http://www.disney.com)."
Blast has some 190,000 users, although about a sixth of them are on board through free introductory offers, the company told *The Wall Street Journal*. The service charges subscription fees of $5.95 per month or $39.95 per year. The service offers multiplayer games, interactive stories, and of course Disney merchandise, all of which is packaged as kid-safe.
4\. [Back to top](#top)__China likes CDMA:__ Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji indicated on Monday that Beijing would approve a leading US mobile phone technology, US Commerce Secretary William Daley said while on a trade mission in Beijing.
A concession on the Code Division Multiple Access system, or CDMA, would help China's bid to join the World Trade Organization, and could be worth billions of dollars to US companies such as Qualcomm ([QCOM](https://www.wired.com/stocks_quotes.asp?symbol=qcom)), Motorola ([MOT](https://www.wired.com/stocks_quotes.asp?symbol=mot)), and Lucent ([LU](https://www.wired.com/stocks_quotes.asp?symbol=lu)).
In the United States, most wireless networks use CDMA, while in Europe and large parts of Asia, the dominant wireless phone standard is Global System for Mobile Communication, or GSMC, a technology developed by Ericsson. But just last week Qualcomm and Ericsson said they will support a single-world standard based on CDMA.
4\. [Back to top](#top) __DSL, office-to-office:__ Covad Communications said Monday it would use the backbone networks of AT&T and Qwest to extend its digital subscriber line service nationwide. The DSL service is aimed at connecting small businesses and is marketed as a faster and cheaper alternative to dialup connections. Covad's service is now available in the San Francisco Bay Area; Los Angeles; New York; Boston; Washington, DC; Philadelphia; Seattle; and Sacramento. With the nationwide rollout announced Monday, it will extend to 51 US metropolitan areas.
Covad ([COVD](https://www.wired.com/stocks_quotes.asp?symbol=covd)) was founded in 1996 by three former Intel employees and went public in January, after receiving backing from both AT&T and Qwest.
5\. [Back to top](#top)__Web-based email, everywhere:__ The free email service [ZiaSun](http://www.ziasun.com) announced a plan Monday to give even the puniest of Web sites the ability to offer their own email services. ZiaSun ([ZSUN](https://www.wired.com/stocks_quotes.asp?symbol=zsun)) hopes to make money off the service by selling banner ads that would go on the email pages.
The company didn't say when the service would be launched, but speculated that it would register 100,000 sites "in the first few months."
*Reuters contributed to this report.*
