John Lewell

[London, ENGLAND] Affiliate marketing company Be Free announced Tuesday the launch of its performance-based service in Europe, forecasting a “sea-change” in online marketing on that side of the Atlantic. Having already secured brand name customers in the U.K. such as BOL.com, Ask Jeeves UK, Gateway UK, lastminute.com and QXL, Be Free has decided to mount […]

[London, ENGLAND] Wireless Knowledge, a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. and QUALCOMM Inc., announced Monday the opening of a European office, its fourth major expansion within a year. Once more, London is to be the hub, becoming the location of choice for yet another U.S. venture setting up a headquarters for its Europe, Middle East […]

[London, ENGLAND] European travel portal eDreams, the largest in Spain and Italy, announced Monday it has secured nearly US $14 million in second round financing. The new investment comes from financiers led by 3i Group in the U.K., and consisting of Apax Partners, Atlas Venture, Doll Capital Management, Net Partners and Banco Santander Central Hispano […]

[London, ENGLAND] U.K. Web site SMSboy.com has announced a free, no-strings-attached service for sending SMS text messages to mobile phones across Europe. The new service, launched this week, enables users to send text messages from the Web to any GSM mobile phone in Europe, without even the need to register or subscribe to the service. […]

[London, ENGLAND] European online travel company ebookers.com announced Friday a content deal with top Swiss Internet service provider Bluewin Internet Portal. As a result of the agreement, ebookers.com’s Swiss flight booking engine will be integrated into the Bluewin Travel Channel. The deal covers other services, too, including the addition of hotel and rent-a-car booking facilities, […]

[London, ENGLAND] Business and technology consultancy PLAUT says in a report published Thursday that online retailers in the U.K. have such deeply flawed after-sales services that they could make Christmas miserable for their shoppers. Buyer beware? Very much so, says the PLAUT e-Returns Study, which examined 25 major e-commerce sites and found “serious problems” in […]

[London, ENGLAND] With profits for the quarter substantially reduced, BT announced Thursday it will sell off up to 25 percent of its mobile unit BT Wireless and possibly some of its high-speed Internet network BT Ignite. Shares in BT rose briefly on the London Stock Exchange following the announcement, before slumping by 4.5 percent. Net […]

[London, ENGLAND] European managed application host Integra and personalization software supplier Net Perceptions have formed a strategic alliance in Europe, the two companies announced Wednesday. Under the terms of the agreement, Integra will operate and distribute Net Perceptions’ real-time personalization and data analysis software throughout the continent. Andy McLeod, chief executive of Integra, said that […]

[London, ENGLAND] AOL UK announced Wednesday that it is extending its flat-rate Internet access plan to all consumers including newcomers who have not previously been members of its service. Starting immediately, anyone in the U.K. can now obtain unmetered access for a standard monthly fee of £14.99 (approx. US $21). The fee includes all subscription […]

[London, ENGLAND] Convergys Corporation, which supplies outsourced billing and customer care services, has announced a three-year agreement to provide COLT Telecom Group in Europe with a digital subscriber line (DSL) management solution. The Convergys product will allow COLT customers to read about COLT’s DSL offerings, pre-qualify for service, place the order, and check to see […]

[London, ENGLAND] Coffee has always been an integral part of the Internet revolution — and never more so than Tuesday this week when European coffee company Lavazza and technology supplier eDevice launched a coffee machine that sends e-mail. Lavazza’s e-espressopoint not only sends e-mail requesting maintenance checks or restocking visits but also can receive e-mail […]

[London, ENGLAND] dotTV, the registrar that has cornered the market for .tv registrations, announced Monday it is launching German, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese language Web sites. Users in the Far East will be able to register .tv domain names in Asian characters for Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, while German, French, Spanish users will […]