John Lewell

[London, ENGLAND] According to Internet advertising monitor AdZone Interactive, expenditure on Web advertising in Europe rose by an average of 11 percent from July to August this year. Until now, there have not been any accurate figures available for measuring how much is being spent on Web advertising in Europe. Two months after announcing its […]

[London, ENGLAND] A partnership, announced Monday, between international PC-to-phone service provider Go2Call and student portal Student.co.uk will give free Internet phone calling to three million students in the U.K. Making a call will be easy — students will log on to the Student.co.uk home page, enter the number they wish to call, and hit “go.” […]

[London, ENGLAND] Emerging as a major U.K. Internet service provider, Scottish telecoms company iomart Group plc announced Friday it will put its own equipment into BT local exchanges to beef up its existing ADSL services. Up till now, iomart has been using BT’s IP Stream product range to supply ADSL services in the U.K. via […]

[London, ENGLAND] Online financial services provider E*TRADE said Friday it has agreed to sell its minority equity stake in CPR-E*TRADE, a joint venture aimed at the French retail brokerage market, to its venture partner CPR. Picking up E*TRADE’s share will cost French investment bank CPR around 82 million euros (US $70 million). E*TRADE’s decision to […]

[London, ENGLAND] Internet bookmaker William Hill said Thursday it has taken bets on the Olympic Games from 159 different countries. And yes, says the U.K. bookmaker, it has even received bets — two of them — from Equatorial Guinea, home of lone swimmer Eric Moussambani who surprised viewers by completing his first-ever 100-metre swim during […]

[London, ENGLAND] A day after ebookers.com moved into financial services, lastminute.com announced Thursday a new car rental service for its users. Provided for lastminute.com by leisure car rental broker Holiday Autos, the service is now available in the U.K. and will be rolled-out shortly to France, Germany and Sweden. Although neither lastminute.com nor Holiday Autos […]

[London, ENGLAND] Application service provider Aspective no longer aspires to be the largest ASP in Europe — it is, with Wednesday’s takeover of e-business specialist Oxygen Solutions Ltd. Led by IBM UK’s former chief executive Javaid Aziz, Aspective will pay an undisclosed sum in shares and cash for the U.K.-based company which specializes in the […]

[London, ENGLAND] European travel site ebookers.com surprised the Internet industry Wednesday by announcing its diversification into financial services in a deal with moneygator.com. Unlike many e-commerce sites, ebookers.com has relatively high-spending customers who pay an average of US $650 per transaction. The rationale behind the latest move is to offer these customers the chance to […]

[London, ENGLAND] In what will be seen as the culmination of its “Stop the Clock” campaign, AOL UK has announced unmetered Internet access in a cautiously phased U.K. roll-out. First to get the new flat-fee service will be AOL’s longest-standing customers who can switch their accounts immediately. Next will be other customers who joined AOL […]

[London, ENGLAND] Microsoft Corporation announced Tuesday that it plans to launch versions of its online personal finance service MSN MoneyCentral in four international markets over the next few months. The markets are France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, each of which will get its own customized version of MoneyCentral. When all four projects have […]

[London, ENGLAND] Swedish Internet agency Framfab announced Monday the acquisition of Arexus, described as “one of the most promising Internet consultancies” in Bulgaria. The acquisition is a new chapter in Framfab’s rapid expansion. It follows last week’s purchase of Swedish advertising agency Stenström & Co. and brings Framfab’s total number of employees to 2,570 in […]

[London, ENGLAND] BT indicated in a statement issued over the weekend that it is holding discussions with AT&T with a view to merging more of their respective businesses. The two companies already have a major joint venture in Concert, the successful launch of which has led to the current discussions. Observers have for some time […]