John Lewell

[June 7] According to Internet bookmakers William Hill, the Euro 2000 soccer tournament starting Saturday will be the biggest betting event of all time. Worldwide, gamblers are expected to bet more than £150 million ($226 million) on the tournament’s outcome — and this may be a conservative estimate. “Easy access to Internet betting has transformed […]

[June 6] French site Interbed.com launched Tuesday offering a hotel search engine for travelers worldwide that provides both “angel” and “devil” stories from hotel guests. Users click the angel logo for the good news, the devil for the bad. Interbed.com claims it is “returning power to the traveler” by including these testimonials and condemnations, although […]

[June 6] Anti-virus software developer Kaspersky Lab reported Tuesday the emergence of what it believes to be the world’s first virus to attack mobile phones. “Timofonica” — as it is called — is an Internet worm that is reported to be “in the wild” in Spain where it has been spamming mobile phones connected to […]

[June 5] Online careers site Monster.com announced Monday the extension of its European operations to Germany and Ireland. Owned by global recruitment agency TMP Worldwide, Monster.com is launching Monster.de in collaboration with the German careers site stellenborse.de. The new site starts business with a database of 8,000 CVs. Jeff Taylor, chief executive officer of Monster.com, […]

[June 5] U.K. e-tailer StreetsOnline.co.uk announced over the weekend the launch of StreetsOnline Xchange, a portal designed to “shake up” Europe’s entertainment industry. StreetsOnline Xchange is a major project that is intended to carry over a million products over the next eighteen months. It will source the products from major and specialist suppliers with the […]

[June 2] European Internet travel company ebookers.com announced Friday an alliance with online travel goods retailer travelcamel.com. As a result of the agreement, ebookers.com will receive commission from travelcamel.com in return for purchases of travelcamel.com products made on a special “microsite” featured in ebookers’ Travelshop storefront. Dinesh Dhamija, chief executive officer of ebookers.com, claimed the […]

[June 2] Fashionmall.com has acquired the domain name and fashion retailing business of boo.com following the sale of boo.com’s e-commerce software to Bright Station. Visitors to boo.com are now immediately diverted to the U.S. fashion portal, a popular site that combines an online shopping mall with fashion content. Few details about the acquisition were available […]

[June 1] In a bid to beat its competitors on the Internet, Britain’s Nationwide Building Society is offering 7 percent annual gross interest on a new online savings facility called Nationwide e-Savings. Having attracted nearly two hundred thousand users to its retail Internet banking service, which it opened exactly three years ago, the Nationwide promises […]

[June 1] In a second round of funding, pan-European financial services site Xelector has raised 23.5 million euros (nearly $22 million) from blue-chip investors. The latest funding for Xelector, which enables users to compare and purchase financial services online, places a value on the company of 175 million euros ($163 million). The eight investors are […]

[May 31] Swiss-based fiber network operator Carrier1 International S.A. announced Wednesday a $175 million deal for the cross-purchasing of broadband capacity with fellow fiber operator 360networks. Under the terms of the agreement, Carrier1 buys dark fiber in the U.K. together with lit broadband capacity on transatlantic and North American networks, while providing 360networks with 1,900 […]

[May 31] European management consultancy Roland Berger has said in a new report that successful U.S. Internet business models do not necessarily work in Europe. After surveying 80 Internet companies based both in the U.S. and 15 European countries, the research firm found that businesses need a different strategy when they attempt to penetrate European […]

[May 30] As expected, France Telecom confirmed Monday that it has agreed to acquire mobile operator Orange from Vodafone in a deal worth 43.2 billion euros ($40 billion). The acquisition creates a pan-European wirefree operator by combining Orange with Itineris and France Telecom’s other wirefree businesses. The new company will have an anticipated 30 million […]