John Lewell

[London, ENGLAND] Late deals company lastminute.com plc announced Friday it has signed two more WAP agreements, this time with One 2 One in the U.K. and Bouygues Telecom in France. lastminute.com’s list of WAP partners now reads like a roll-call of the industry, with Orange, Vodafone, BTCellnet, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom all having signed. […]

[London, ENGLAND] E-mail outsourcing specialist Commtouch announced Friday a major thrust into international markets with deals in Spain, the Netherlands and Australia. In Spain, Commtouch has signed an agreement with daily newspaper ABC.es for e-mail and WAP-enabled wireless messaging solutions. In the Netherlands it has signed up publishing house PCM which owns four of Holland’s […]

[London, ENGLAND] Pan-European DSL service provider VersaPoint announced Thursday the launch of broadband services in Germany. Based in the Netherlands, Versapoint was formed earlier this year by Californian company NorthPoint Communications and Holland’s Versatel Telecom N.V. In June it launched the first phase of a highly ambitious scheme to build Europe’s largest broadband network, offering […]

[London, ENGLAND] In a terse statement Thursday, European online auctioneer QXL.com plc indicated it was reconsidering its proposed merger with ricardo.de AG in light of “certain information.” Following the announcement, shares in ricardo.de slumped 20 percent while those in QXL.com rose by 15 percent. The full text of the QXL.com statement reads: “QXL.com plc has […]

[London, ENGLAND] AOL UK and Wal-Mart Europe announced Wednesday a four-year strategic marketing agreement and a joint stake in shopping portal ShopSmart.com. As part of the deal, Wal-Mart will distribute AOL disks in its 240 ASDA stores in the U.K., while AOL UK will integrate ASDA into its shopping, interests and lifestyle channels as a […]

[London, ENGLAND] Homebase, the home improvement arm of J Sainsbury plc, says it aims to “de-mystify interior design” with its new Web site Homebase.co.uk. A fully transactional site, Homebase.co.uk has cost US $15 million to develop, but its proud parent is confident it will capture a significant share of the online market for paints, tools, […]

[London, ENGLAND] European facilities-based communications provider Carrier1 International announced Tuesday the construction of two more fiber optic city rings in Berlin and Munich. Carrier1 has already completed 16 kilometers of cable in Munich and 35 in Berlin, and says the new rings will enable it to connect major data centers, carriers and access nodes in […]

[London, ENGLAND] European Internet service provider World Online confirmed late Monday that it is holding merger talks with Italy’s Tiscali S.p.A. Rumors of the talks caused an 11 percent hike in World Online shares Monday, while confirmation of them caused a further 8 percent rise on Tuesday. However, the company warned that the discussions were […]

[London, ENGLAND] NTL announced Monday a partnership with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Private Equity to acquire France Telecom’s 49.9 percent stake in European broadband company Noos. The deal will give NTL a 27 percent stake in Noos for $627 million, with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Private Equity taking 22.9 percent. Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux will […]

[London, ENGLAND] Europe’s largest consumer electronics retailer Dixons Group plc has joined the WorldWide Retail Exchange (WWRE) along with two other major retailers, it was announced Monday. The other retailers to join the e-marketplace this week are Dansk Supermarked, which operates more than 700 stores in Denmark, Germany, Poland and the U.K., and Edeka, the […]

[London, ENGLAND] U.K. mobile Internet information company Kizoom has signed with Railtrack to provide a personalized rail timetable service to mobile users. Half a million people regularly use Railtrack’s Web site which has proved to be one of the Internet’s most useful and efficient applications in the U.K. Users simply insert date and time parameters, […]

[London, ENGLAND] European Internet hosting service Magic Moments announced Friday a new service named 123-reg.co.uk where customers can manage their own domain name and e-mail services online. Developed by WebFusion, a company snapped up by Magic Moments earlier this year, 123-reg.co.uk enables customers to register and manage all their domain names. It offers a specially […]