Online Marketplace

Four of the world's leading defense and aerospace companies confirmed that they will form a massive Web-based marketplace for aerospace parts and services, becoming the latest industrial heavyweight to move purchasing and supply activities to the Internet. Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Co. and Britain's BAE Systems, whose outlays total $71 billion a year, said they are partnering with Commerce One Inc. in the venture they expect to be operational by midyear.

Silver Lake resident Charles Scott bypassed the malls and the jewelry district in downtown Los Angeles in shopping for an engagement ring. Searching for something out of the ordinary, he surfed onto Etsy and started clicking through photos of handcrafted diamond rings. Using the online marketplace's "shop local" function, Scott found a Pasadena jewelry maker whose handmade Moroccan-inspired wares caught his eye. "I wanted to not have to go to a store and haggle with someone who sells diamonds all day," Scott said.

Three leading computer manufacturers and nine of their suppliers, including troubled Irvine disk drive maker Western Digital Corp., will invest $100 million to form an independent Internet marketplace for silicon chips, monitors and other PC parts. Hewlett-Packard Co., Compaq and Gateway spearheaded the formation of the new San Francisco-area Internet marketplace.

Three of the biggest personal computer makers, Hewlett-Packard Co., Compaq Computer Corp. and Gateway Inc., and nine of their suppliers will invest $100 million to form an independent Internet marketplace for silicon chips, monitors and other PC parts. Other members of the new San Francisco-area Internet marketplace include chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc., contract manufacturers Solectron Corp. and SCI Systems Inc., disk drive maker Western Digital Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Samsung, NEC Corp.

The court action recently brought by the antitrust division of the Department of Justice against Microsoft has triggered a great deal of thought and debate about the future of the Internet, electronic commerce and the role of government in both. Even as a member of a generation that grew up listening to the radio, I find myself captivated by this controversy. Like most Republicans, I am someone whose instincts lead me away from government regulation and toward the magic of the marketplace.

Every Friday, as the sun begins to creep past its apex, Gemal Seede squeezes past the crowded rows at the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles. A blank tape clutched in one hand, Seede prepares to record the weekly sermon, which he'll upload into the virtual mosque at IslamiCity, a site he helps to maintain on the World Wide Web. Many hours later and a continent away, Ahmad Phelps slips out of bed and flips on his computer.

Jeff Bezos: founder and CEO of Amazon.com, and now, bona fide ocean explorer. A year after vowing to send a team into the ocean to find F-1 engines from the historic Apollo 11 moon launch, Bezos announced Wednesday that the team had recovered F-1 engine parts. Because many original serial numbers are missing or partially missing, it was unclear if they actually came from the Apollo 11 mission. Calling it an “incredible adventure,” the billionaire said the team had just finished three weeks at sea, working nearly three miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

Irvine-based Buyproduce.com, an online marketplace for the fresh produce industry, said it has secured $20 million in financing from a group of investors led by Charter Growth Capital. The additional infusion gives the company $30 million in venture funding.

Alibris Inc., an Emeryville, Calif.-based online marketplace for used books, withdrew its initial public offering because it was unhappy with the prices being offered by bidders. The company had planned to use an open-auction process for the offering, allowing investors to bid on the price they wished to pay for the shares. From Dow Jones / Associated Press