Fast Facts Section B: February 5, 2001

CarOrder Remodels

Online car seller CarOrder is taking a radical step to revive its flagging fortunes. The Austin, Texas, company has purchased two auto dealerships in California to use as inventory supply bases for its online operations. CarOrder was hit hard in the dot-com crash last year. It stopped taking orders in August and laid off 100 employees. The site relaunched last week after its founding partner, software developer Trilogy, pumped another $25 million into the operation.

Expedia Exploding

Microsofts online travel service, Expedia, reported an 81 percent surge in revenue in its second quarter and a narrower loss from operations than analysts expected. The company said revenue came in at $79.7 million for the quarter, resulting in a net loss of $25.3 million, or 53 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $43 million, or $1.07 per share, a year earlier. Having acquired Travelscape and VacationSpot, Expedia has seen the value of bookings on the combined properties soar 90 percent, to $475 million.

Security Flaw Found

Security experts discovered a flaw in the widely used software known as BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) that could be used by hackers to hijack corporate and government Web sites and steal sensitive e-mail. The vulnerability was uncovered by researchers at the federally backed Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University and by experts from PGP Security. There havent been any reports of hackers exploiting the flaws, but researchers are urging corporations and agencies to install updated software.

Bully for Lycos

Internet portal Terra Lycos has sealed a deal to purchase online financial community Raging Bull from AltaVista in an all-cash deal. Terra Lycos was formed last year by the merger of search engine Lycos with the Internet unit of Spanish telephone giant Telefónica. Terra Lycos said it has also purchased Iberwap, a provider of digital mapping services.