John Lewell

BT announced a July starting date Wednesday for BTopenworld, its forthcoming broadband service that will provide high-speed, always-on access to the Internet for both businesses and consumers. BT said its consumer service will cost just £39.99 ($64) a month. It will be backed with a mass-market broadband portal, created in conjunction with BT’s content partners. […]

European food industry hub eFoodmanager.com Tuesday acquired DerFischmann.de, an online marketplace for the seafood industry. Joachim Reichelmann, DerFischmann’s founder and chief executive officer, has joined eFoodmanager as head of the seafood produce category. Financial terms were not disclosed. Reichelmann said the move would be a significant step forward for DerFischmann’s users. It would bring additional […]

PSINet Tuesday extended its Jyra In-Site monitoring service to its centers in Europe and the United States. First used successfully by PSINet in the U.K., Jyra is a Web and e-commerce performance assessment solution. PSINet is now carrying it across to its hosting centers in Amsterdam, Holland and Herndon, Virginia. The purpose of Jyra is […]

Scoot.com caught absent London traders unawares on Easter Monday by revealing that it has started negotiations to buy classified advertising newspaper Loot. Scoot.com says it has the backing of communications group Vivendi which will provide financing for the Loot acquisition. Vivendi is a major shareholder in Scoot.com. Robert Bonnier, chief executive officer of Scoot.com, approved […]

Forrester Research is predicting Europe will deliver 22 per cent of a global Internet economy expected to be worth a total of $6.9 trillion in 2004. Forrester says Europe has a more balanced Internet economy than the Asia-Pacific region, although both have comparable online sales totals. It expects online sales in Europe in 2004 to […]

Having pitted the telcos against each other in a profit-draining $30 billion auction for mobile phone licenses, the U.K. government is to do the same again with broadband fixed wireless access. Small Business and E-Commerce Minister Patricia Hewitt this week announced plans for a September auction for the spectrum available at 28 GHz for broadband […]

Investment bank Merrill Lynch and international banking giant HSBC this week formed a partnership to create an online banking and investment service for individual customers outside the United States. The new company, to be called Merrill Lynch HSBC, will start trading with up to $1 billion in capital. Like HSBC, it will be headquartered in […]

VIA NET.WORKS announced Tuesday that its SURFTRADE portal now links Portuguese-language markets in Brazil, Portugal and the United States. First launched in Brazil in 1997, SURFTRADE provides a range of services for businesses, with information on finance, law, marketing, business and technology. surftrade.com.br has 50,000 registered users, 80 per cent of them corporations seeking information. […]

QXL.com announced Tuesday that it will partner BT Cellnet in a deal that will make its online auctions available via BT’s Genie Internet wireless platform. The deal calls for a specially created service, tailored for WAP mobile phones, but it will include thousands of items and will greatly extend the reach of QXL.com’s auctions. Users […]

European broadband service provider Star One announced Monday it will spend $224 million on turnkey infrastructure in Germany, in a deal with Nortel Networks. Under the terms of the agreement, Nortel Networks will build and test the network, then transfer it to Star One, using its Reunion broadband wireless access solution, Preside network management and […]

International financial portal GlobalNetFinancial.com Friday bought European WAP and e-solutions consultancy Cyberwolf. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, although at March 31, 2000, GLBN had a war chest of $144 million in cash, enabling it to move quickly in filling any gaps in its capabilities. GLBN also said it has hired Rahul Jaitly, […]

Scoot.com Thursday entered a technology alliance with IBM that will help it develop its services throughout Europe. Under the terms of the five-year agreement, IBM will supply web hosting and IT support while both companies will cooperate in R&D, focusing on wireless technology but also sharing in sales and marketing. “With our rollout plans being […]