SBJ Buzz

D&B database goes online

Dun & Bradstreet announced Aug. 1 the availability of a Web-enabled version of its flagship database marketing product, D&B Market Spectrum.

Dun & Bradstreet provides companies with access to in-depth, actionable information on businesses worldwide, and its global database more than 1 million times a day information on more than 58 million privately and publicly held companies, according to a Dun & Bradstreet press release.

D&B Market Spectrum allows companies to combine their customer data with information from D&B's global database to support targeted direct marketing and sales initiatives. The new Web-enabled product facilitates access to information from anywhere 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The price tag? D&B Market Spectrum Web is available for an initial yearly license fee of $15,000, plus applicable data and customization costs.

Existing D&B Market Spectrum customers can be upgraded for an initial yearly license fee of $10,000, plus data and customization charges based on customer requirements.

Dot-coms announce major merger

Software.com Inc. and Phone.com Inc. announced Aug. 9 that they will merge, and the combined company will be headed by exiting Cisco Systems Executive Vice President Donald Listwin as president and chief executive officer.

Phone.com is a provider of wireless Internet infrastructure and application software, and Software.com is a provider of Internet infrastructure software for wired and wireless service providers, according to a Phone.com release.

The combined company's global customer base includes the industry's largest service providers: AT&T, Sprint PCS, Nextel, Verizon Wireless, British Telecom, KDDI, Telecom Italia, Excite@Home, PSINet, Telstra, Telcell, GTE.net Services, Time Warner's Road Runner, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Mannesmann and Bell South.

The transaction is expected to close by calendar year end 2000, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. The name of the combined company will be announced at that time.

DOC praises privacy policy

Online advertising companies have stepped up to the plate on the issue of privacy protection, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

More than 90 percent of the network advertising industry quantified by revenue and ads served off in July on the self-regulatory Principles for Online Preference Marketing.

"Once fully implemented, these principles will constitute an effective and meaningful self-regulatory approach to privacy protection," said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Norman Y. Mineta in the release.

"They will provide appropriate protection for the privacy of individuals' information," he added.

Network advertising companies that deliver ads to Web sites often engage in online preference marketing, or "profiling," accomplished primarily through the use of "cookies" and "Web bugs" which track an individual's actions across Web sites. This allows advertising and content to be tailored to the individual.

According to the Department of Commerce, the self-regulatory principles give consumers notice and choice regarding the use of their information, as well as an effective oversight and enforcement mechanism.

iPublish.com unveils e-books

iPublish.com at Time Warner Books, the electronic publishing division recently launched by Time Warner Trade Publishing, has unveiled its first list of monthly releases, available in September at www.ipublish.com.

Among its first releases will be works by Time Warner authors including Nelson DeMille, David Baldacci, Sandra Brown, Nicholas Sparks and David Foster Wallace. The list also includes "Passport to Profits" by financial guru Mark Mobius with Stephen Fenichell, the first in a monthly series of business titles condensed and reformatted for electronic reading.