On The Net

Amazon.com turns its first net profit

About two years after Time Magazine named Jeff Bezos its man of the year for his contributions to the then-booming Web economy, the company he founded has turned its first net profit. Amazon.com said Tuesday that it earned $5 million, or a penny a share, in the most recent quarter. That compares with a net loss of $545 million, or $1.53 per share during the same quarter a year ago. Company officials said Amazon.com's operations have become more efficient and more cost effective, and holiday sales boosted the bottom line. They had been promising that profits would arrive, but Tuesday's announcement was unexpected for many analysts. The company still had a rough 2001 overall, though. It reported a net loss of $567.2 million for the year, compared with a net loss of $1.41 billion in 2000.

Enron employees fired for online complaints

At least two employees of collapsed energy trading company Enron have been fired in the past two months for online posts about the company, reports The New York Times. One of the fired employees, Clayton Vernon, asked Enron chairman Kenneth L. Lay in an internal online discussion whether the company had used "aggressive accounting" to overstate its profits. The other fired person, who has not been identified, revealed in early December online that Enron had paid $55 million in retention bonuses to executives and top managers right before the company filed for bankruptcy protection and laid off 4,000 workers on Dec. 2. The Times said Enron officials declined to comment on other details of the two firings, as well as whether there were other dismissals because of similar Internet postings.

Scrimping, time management now key for startups

Web companies that survived the industry's meltdown are looking for ways to pinch pennies, of course, but for their executives, there's another new phenomenon. "The biggest frustration of our CEOs is that they are spending so much time fund raising that their businesses decline," Blake Winchell of Fremont Ventures told the San Francisco Chronicle. And that makes it more difficult to attract new investors, he said. Many venture capital firms were burnt by the Web economy, so they are setting much tougher demands on young companies before investing in them.

Ravens stadium to lose service provider's name

The Baltimore Ravens played this NFL season in a stadium bearing the name of a company that went belly-up during the Internet crash. But next year, things will be different, according to The Washington Post. Ravens Chief Financial Officer Luis Perez said he does not expect PSINet Inc. to make the next payment on its sponsorship deal, scheduled for Feb. 1. PSINet bought the naming rights to the Ravens' stadium in January 1999 as part of a 20-year deal worth an estimated $93.5 million. The company filed for bankruptcy June 1, before the Ravens had played a game in the 2001 season. But the PSINet logo remained. The Ravens' season ended this weekend with a playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Microsoft's anti-piracy efforts intensify

Microsoft's anti-piracy division has made sophisticated improvements since it was instituted five years ago, according to Wired News. In the beginning, workers manually searched the Internet, site by site, for people selling illegal copies of Microsoft software. Now the company has an in-house automated system that scans continuously for sites that offer bootlegged Microsoft products. The company's anti-piracy manager, Diana Piquette, told Wired News: "We can identify and address in excess of 500 illegal sites in a single day, while it might take a month to manually shut down that many sites. Microsoft started using it in 2000. The total number of takedowns has been more than 88,000 in the last two years."

Virus and hacking data is lacking, experts say

It is difficult to assess whether Internet security is improving, say the experts, because there is a noticeable lack of conclusive data about viruses, hacker attacks and other disruptions of online life. Richard Power, editorial director for the Computer Security Institute, told CNET News.com: "We need more data, better data and different kinds of data. ... Having the right data would help debunk a lot of the crap out there: predictions of an electronic Pearl Harbor and the waves of hype that follow virus attacks like 'I Love You.'" CSI itself puts out a yearly survey on Internet security that is often cited, but the organization itself notes that the survey should not be seen as scientifically accurate.

Some security experts say that while incidents of viruses and hacker attacks are on the rise, companies are doing a better job of handling them. But in some cases, they don't report them, leaving the current data unreliable. For the security industry itself, that data has power. Greg Shipley, chief technology officer with network protection firm Neohapsis, told CNET News.com: "When you have to sell management on why they should be shelling out serious bucks for security, you need hard numbers -- or at least harder numbers than we have now."

(Compiled by Joe Warminsky in Washington.)