It’s not fun making mistakes. On Wednesday, we published a story about a class-action lawsuit being brought against Webloyalty, Fandango, Priceline, and others. We’re proud of our work on the piece and, as always, tried hard to get the story straight, but yesterday evening several potential inaccuracies were brought to our attention. We investigated further and found that we had indeed made errors on some of the details. To be clear, we stand behind the overall story, but we believe in owning up to our mistakes, so we’d like to set the record straight on the points we got wrong:
— Due to an editing error, we identified Petco.com as one of the defendants in the lawsuit. While Petco is among Webloyalty’s partners (several of whom are indeed named in the lawsuit), it is not a defendant in the case.
— Due to a miscommunication between the reporter and one of the attorneys in the lawsuit, the article incorrectly described the procedural posture of the case. Specifically, we reported that both a Webloyalty motion to dismiss the case and a Webloyalty motion for summary judgment had been denied by the court. In fact, Webloyalty did not make a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. It filed a motion for summary judgment at the outset that was terminated by the court without prejudice so the parties could take discovery. Webloyalty has the right to refile that motion.
We sincerely regret these errors and have corrected them. You can find the revised article here.
Author: Robert Buderi
Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative.
Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.
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