John Lewell

[London, ENGLAND] Trintech Group, the international provider of electronic payment infrastructure solutions, announced Wednesday the acquisition of Exceptis Technologies for around US $26 million. Exceptis Technologies, which like Trintech is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, provides what are known as “exception management solutions” to the card payments industry. Its solutions deal with such issues as automated […]

[London, ENGLAND] Interxion, the Dutch operator of carrier-neutral Internet exchange centers (IECs) across Europe (and pronounced “Inter-Action”), announced Tuesday the addition of further centers in Ireland and Italy. The new centers bring Interxion’s total square-footage in Europe to 1.1 million (that’s around a hundred thousand square meters), with thirteen of its eighteen centers now fully […]

[London, ENGLAND] Record company EMI Group, in the financial pages Tuesday for reporting a six-month loss of US $44.6 million to end September, has announced a strategic agreement with European digital music distributor DX3 Ltd. EMI’s digital download trial in North America launched in July and is only now being extended to Europe. When it […]

[London, ENGLAND] According to a recent survey by The Post Office in the U.K., the Internet is beginning to rival traditional mail order for people who like to shop from home for their Christmas presents. When questioned, 11 percent of people said they would surf the Web for presents, while 35 percent will use mail […]

[London, ENGLAND] France Telecom and business network operator Equant announced Monday a deal that merges Equant with France Telecom’s international arm Global One while giving the French telco effective control of the new company with a 54.3 percent stake. France Telecom will purchase the SITA Foundation’s 68 million shares in Equant, exchanging one existing France […]

[London, ENGLAND] European co-buying business LetsBuyIt.com announced Friday its one-millionth member, a figure that comes just after the first anniversary of its U.K. site. Originating in Sweden, LetsBuyIt.com has since moved the headquarters of its operation to London, where a team led by ex-Nike manager Martin Coles looks after 14 European markets. LetsBuyIt.com enables shoppers […]

[London, ENGLAND] TheStreet.co.uk has been consigned to Dotcom Graveyard by its parent TheStreet.com in a cost-cutting exercise aimed at protecting the core U.S. business. The sudden closure of the U.K. site has come as a shock to the 64 employees, including Nils Pratley, editor, who had previously resigned his post on national newspaper “Sunday Business” […]

[London, ENGLAND] European online travel company ebookers.com announced Thursday the “completion” of its acquisition of Flightbookers plc, the 17-year-old travel agency that originally gave birth to the online venture. As specified in the acquisition terms, ebookers.com is paying 50 percent of the US $15 million consideration immediately in new ebookers.com shares. It will pay the […]

[London, ENGLAND] Domain name registrar Netnames has revealed that the ten most valuable brands in the U.K. are perilously unprotected on the Web, two of them having failed even to register their own .co.uk domain names. At this advanced stage in the Web’s development it would appear to be a very straightforward and obvious strategy […]

[London, ENGLAND] Mobile Internet company Aspiro announced Wednesday a US $0.34 million deal to supply mobile Internet applications to a European operator over three years. The order, for no less than seven mobile Internet services, gives a substantial boost to Aspiro, a relatively small player with just 125 staff in a huge and burgeoning market. […]

[London, ENGLAND] Being appointed Head of Travel at lastminute.com sounds as good as becoming Head of Ice Cream at Baskin-Robbins — but that’s the job landed by Mrs. Nicola Denvir, 35, a former Cathay Pacific Airways employee. In fact, Nicola Denvir joined lastminute.com in July 1999, heading up the flights department of Europe’s largest online […]

[London, ENGLAND] Knowledge Technology Solutions (KTS), the parent company of finance portal Sharepages.com, is to float on AIM, London’s Alternative Investment Market, in December. Although best known for Sharepages.com, KTS is also the parent of software company Cognita, which develops custom solutions for aggregating, processing, and delivering real-time information over the Internet. KTS expects to […]