John Lewell

[London, ENGLAND] A worldwide marketplace for engineered components will go live in October, its originators Babcock Borsig AG, mg technologies and SAPMarkets announced Monday. The new service will be named ec4ec (e-commerce for engineered components) and made available online to all companies that wish to participate. Initially, ec4ec will be a small fish in a […]

[London, ENGLAND] Late deals specialist lastminute.com has launched a localized Australian version of its site in conjunction with partner travel.com.au. The new site, at au.lastminute.com, begins with a cheery “Hello there!” and introduces “Our funky flavours” — in contrast to the U.K. site which often dispenses with formalities and informalities alike. Intended for users in […]

[London, ENGLAND] European online auctioneer QXL.com plc announced Friday that ricardo.de AG has agreed to be acquired for a price 74 percent lower than QXL offered just three months ago. For the past week, QXL has been reconsidering its proposed takeover of the German online auctioneer, in the light of information provided by ricardo.de concerning […]

[London, ENGLAND] GlobalNetFinancial.com, Inc., which provides the financial channel for Freeserve in the U.K., announced Thursday a $332 million merger with IT Internet services provider Telescan, Inc. The combined company, called GlobalNetFinancial.com, will be headed by personnel from the Telescan camp, with Board member William D. Savoy becoming chairman, and Lee Barba, currently chief executive […]

[London, ENGLAND] In what is thought to be the first sponsorship of a major art show by an Internet company, eyestorm is to back a forthcoming exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in the U.K. An online source of signed and numbered photographic prints by both well-known and up-and-coming artists, eyestorm will provide a […]

[London, ENGLAND] Internet infrastructure services provider Universal Access announced an agreement Wednesday with datacenter operator IXEurope for the co-location of facilities in the U.K. The deal will allow Universal Access to place its Universal Transport Exchange (UTX) interconnection facilities at IXEurope’s datacenters in London and Heathrow Airport. The move is seen by UA management as […]

[London, ENGLAND] Despite the fact that Southern Europe has practically the same climate as California, Forrester Research blames the weather as one factor in the slow take-up of the Internet in Italy, Spain and France. “On a sunny day, Southern Europeans may not be tempted to stay inside and shop online, while Northern Europeans often […]

[London, ENGLAND] Chafic Najia, managing director of GO.com International, the Internet business of the Walt Disney Company, has left to lead start-up European voice portal Vox Generation Ltd. Najia, who has been with the the Disney Internet division since 1996, was responsible for managing all of GO.com’s businesses outside the United States. But like many […]

[London, ENGLAND] California-based “Wireless Web” software developer BlueKite.com announced Tuesday a major expansion of its operations in Europe. Having recently closed US $36 million in its latest round of equity financing, BlueKite.com has appointed Jan Wiejak to manage its European sales and marketing from a new base in London. Wiejak joins the company from Lucent […]

[London, ENGLAND] European late deals company lastminute.com has paid US $89 million for Degriftour Group, France’s largest e-travel company. The takeover, announced Monday, makes lastminute.com the largest European-based e-commerce company, based on revenues. Degriftour Group has been an online retailer since 1991 and has 50 percent of the French market, with a quarter of a […]

[London, ENGLAND] European online auctioneer QXL.com announced Monday a deal that will put its services on all the U.K. platforms of ntl. The latest deal comes while QXL.com is still embroiled in a merger fiasco with German online auctioneer ricardo.de, as reported here last Thursday. QXL’s move to reconsider the ricardo deal was welcomed by […]

[London, ENGLAND] According to domain name registration specialist Afterdomains, registering new .co.uk names has become more popular in the U.K. than stealing cars. Whereas someone steals a car every 30 seconds, there is a new .co.uk domain name being registered every 20 seconds. The figures, first issued by the U.K. naming authority Nominet, are a […]