bout

ABOUT.COM

CEO: Scott Kurnit

URL: www.about.com

HQ: New York

EMPLOYEES: 300

BUSINESS: A different slant on the portal idea. Human "guides," complete with headshots and resumes, recommend sites in their areas of expertise. Strategy: Make the Internet more informative and user friendly.

RIVALS: Excite, Lycos and Yahoo. But by showcasing real people, not faceless services, About hopes to attract a different customer.

SMART MOVE: October formation of subsidiary ABZ.com to run a "human Internet" for b-to-b verticals; will license About's platform to corporate clients.

CHALLENGE: Acquisition by mag publisher Primedia should close in January, and BOUT will no longer trade. Postmerger, watch out for old-new media disputes.

akam

AKAMAI TECHNOLOGIES

CEO: George Conrades

URL: www.akamai.com

HQ: Cambridge, Mass.

EMPLOYEES: 1,053

BUSINESS: Sells software that targets Web surfers' biggest complaint: slow downloads. Speeds up things by storing Internet content on a computer network geographically closer to users. Helps clients customize content and computer users navigate Web congestion and server failures.

RIVALS: Keep an eye on two new alliances, one spearheaded by Cisco Systems and the other by Inktomi. They're working on similar services.

SMART MOVE: Signed agreement in August with Culver City, Calif. based Intertainer to broadcast movies and video over the Internet to PCs.

CHALLENGE: Plans to store and deliver audio and video files could anger partners in the hosting biz.

amzn

AMAZON.COM

CEO: Jeff Bezos

URL: www.amazon.com

HQ: Seattle

EMPLOYEES: 7,600

BUSINESS: With 25 million customers, the nation's No. 1 online superstore offers selection and reliability. But some of the e-commerce poster child's offerings have flopped, and investors are leery of its struggle to find a business model.

RIVALS: Barnesandnoble.com, eBay, Wal-Mart: practically any retailer in the physical or online worlds. The more products Amazon rolls out, the more competitors it gets.

SMART MOVE: August announcement of 10-year partnership with Toys "R" Us. Giraffe's inventory plus Jeff's slick marketing bodes well for toy shopping.

CHALLENGE: Investors and analysts have cooled on the stock. As losses mount, Amazon needs a map to profitability.

aol

AMERICA ONLINE

CEO: Steve Case

URL: www.aoj.com

HQ: Dulles, Va.

EMPLOYEES: 15,000

BUSINESS: Took the Internet thing and ran with it. Still on stride as the largest domestic ISP. Add to that the AOL traditional platform, the Netscape browser and - coming soon - the Time Warner properties. Has targeted the entire consumer market as it moves into TV, broadband and print.

RIVALS: MSN, Yahoo, News Corp. and Viacom. Online or off, any and all media is now the competition.

SMART MOVE: AOL-Time Warner merger has changed the world's media landscape.

CHALLENGE: Convincing regulators and rivals that AOL Time Warner will be a competition-friendly company ... until there's no competition left.

amtd: AMERITRADE

CEO: J. Joe Ricketts (interim)

URL: www.amtd.com

HQ: Omaha, Neb.

EMPLOYEES: 2,513

BUSINESS: Up from the cornfield, this online discount brokerage provides a spectrum of services -- everything from Ameritrade's bare-bones transactions to Accutrade's info-rich platform. Also offers back-end clearing services and a corporate brokerage.

RIVALS: Charles Schwab, E-Trade and TD Waterhouse. Account and asset growth is still a main priority

SMART MOVE: Trimmed advertising spending in the fourth quarter. The cut might have led to fewer trades and customers, but it spurred Ameritrade to its third straight profitable quarter.

CHALLENGE: Attracting customers for institutional services and in-house financial gurus -- the very things it used to brag about making an end run around.

arba: ARIBA

CEO: Keith Krach

URL: www.ariba.com

HQ: Mountain View, Calif.

EMPLOYEES: 1,273

BUSINESS: Provides software for b-to-b Internet commerce. Allows users to buy and sell goods and services, track purchases or name their price in online auctions and markets. Giant clients: American Express, Dow Chemical and IBM.

RIVALS: Commerce One, Oracle and SAP. And look for newbie Idapta, which recently contracted with LevelSeas, a Web marketplace for the ocean-freight industry

SMART MOVE: Acquired online marketplace SupplierMarket.com in August, adding more than 8,000 buyers and 13,000 suppliers to Ariba's network.

CHALLENGE: Regaining momentum after key customer, Global Health Care Exchange, dumped Ariba and its partners i2 Technologies and IBM in September.

artg: ART TECHNOLOGY GROUP

CEO: Jeet Singh

URL: www.atg.com

HQ: Cambridge, Mass.

EMPLOYEES: 324

BUSINESS: Don't let the "Art" fool you. With a one-two combo of e-commerce software and Internet customer relations management, ATG helps companies create and manage Web client rapport. Devotees include Eastman Kodak, Sony and Sun Microsystems.

RIVALS: BroadVision is the Goliath in this field. Other players include Allaire, BEA Systems, Open Market and Vignette.

SMART MOVE: Beating out BroadVision in July for contract to run American Airlines' Web site.

CHALLENGE: Must continue to capitalize on its scalable, Java-based system and move into international markets.

askj: ASK JEEVES

CEO: Robert Wrubel

URL: www.ask.com

HQ: Emeryville, Calif.

EMPLOYEES: 416

BUSINESS: It may not always give exact answers, but at least search service Jeeves speaks proper English. Ask a plain question and Jeeves offers a choice of destinations, drawn from other search engines, prescreened lists and its own advertisers. Also licenses search technology to DaimlerChrysler, Dell, Nike and others.

RIVALS: Google, Infoseek and Yahoo. Quest continues for best way to catalog and retrieve Web sites and make process more intuitive.

SMART MOVE: After launching U.K. service in February, Jeeves plans to break into Japan and Spanish-speaking markets. Ask Juan?

CHALLENGE: Consumer site is just the storefront for its search services, which Jeeves licenses to corporate clients. That's where the real money is.

beas: BEA SYSTEMS

CEO: William Coleman III

URL: www.beasys.com

HQ: San Jose, Calif.

EMPLOYEES: 2,400

BUSINESS: Maker of WebLogic, software that smooths e-commerce transactions -- from billing to supply-chain management. With Amazon and E-Trade on the client roster, BEA is on the rise.

RIVALS: BroadVision remains the leader despite recent stock weakness. Others: Allaire, Art Technology Group and Vignette.

SMART MOVE: Cemented alliances with Computer Sciences, Loud-cloud and Unisys. BEA will invest $20 million in these partnerships this year, allowing it to grow by licensing its products.

CHALLENGE: More global expansion along the lines of the multimillion-dollar deal with British Telecom announced in August.

athm @Home

CEO: George Bell (acting)

URL: www.home.net

HQ: Redwood City, Calif.

EMPLOYEES: 2,500

BUSINESS: Two principal products, @Home and @Work, offer broadband connections and customized portals to home and business users around the country through partnerships with cable operators. Operates the Excite news, entertainment, business and shopping portal.

RIVALS: All national cable-modem and DSL providers. The need for speed will rise, especially in homes as online services and entertainment (can you say "Napster"?) get more and more sophisticated.

SMART MOVIE: Announced in July that its international division would team with Dutch-based Chello to form Excite Chello, the largest high-speed residential broadband provider outside the U.S.

CHALLENGE: Revolving-door leadership and low-flying stock give investors pause, and now majority holder AT&T wants to break itself up. Talk about wait and see.

brcm BROADCOM

CEO: Henry Nicholas III

URL: www.broadcom.com

BUSINESS: Dominant developer of chips for cable set-top boxes and high-speed cable modems. Moving into transmission of voice, video and data. Customers include 3Com, Cisco Systems and Motorola. Highflying stock makes for rare bird these days.

HQ: Irvine, Calif.

EMPLOYEES: 1,459

RIVALS: Intel (see "Challenge"), Texas Instruments, PMC-Sierra and Applied Micro Circuits. Competing to supply the chips and circuits for all the new gadgets.

SMART MOVE: Expanded product line with summer shopping spree. Picked up three companies -- Altima Communications, NewPort Communications and Silicon Spice -- in three weeks.

CHALLENGE: Locked in litigation with Intel over patents (Intel vs. Broadcom) and trade secrets (Broadcom vs. Intel).

bvsn BROADVISION

HQ: Redwood City, Calif.

CEO: Pehong Chen

URL: www.broadvision.com

EMPLOYEES: 1,400

BUSINESS: Makes an array of applications to help customers conduct business on the Internet. Its One-To-One suite powers b-to-b and b-to-c companies online, including Bank of America, Home Depot and Toyota.

RIVALS: Allaire, Open Market and Vignette. All in the business of making Web commerce simple for buyers and sellers alike.