John Lewell

In a move that may have far-reaching consequences, British Telecom announced Thursday a radical corporate restructuring to improve its flexibility in today’s markets — while also spending $1.8 billion on acquiring the remaining 50 per cent of Dutch communications venture, Telfort, from Holland’s national railway company. BT says its restructuring will make it unique among […]

Oracle Corp. and Belgian telecoms solutions supplier Belgacom Wednesday introduced the first Web-based B2B marketplace in Belgium. Based on Oracle’s Exchange e-business market platform, the new e-marketplace will link suppliers to purchasing companies, enabling real-time transactions, and — say the two companies — better prices and faster delivery. The Belgian e-marketplace will launch during the […]

U.K. Internet company whereonearth.com announced Tuesday it has teamed with Yahoo! in a deal that will integrate its unique spatial information system into all of Yahoo!’s sites worldwide. The service offered by whereonearth.com uses GeoLocata technology to perform searches that bring back information organized by location and proximity. In effect it uses what the company […]

The Commonwealth Institute Monday launched of eCommonwealth, a portal and virtual meeting place for people and businesses in 54 member countries. Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said the new portal would help to forge electronic relationships that would become the cornerstone of eCommonwealth. “This new Internet facility will provide the Commonwealth with a virtual meeting place […]

German Internet investment bank netIPO AG announced Friday it has transferred its holdings of InsuranceCity-Versicherungsmakler Online GmbH into Insurance City AG. With a 15 per cent holding in Insurance City AG, netIPO says the online insurance company — which allows clients to finalize insurance contracts in 18 business areas — is now an important strategic […]

Intel Corp. announced Friday its intention to open several e-business solutions centers in Europe, beginning with England, Sweden, and Germany, and later adding others in France and the Netherlands. Intel also announced that seven European companies have joined its e-Business Solution Provider Program, giving them access to the new centers and other support services. They […]

The U.K’s Office of Telecommunications (Oftel) has reported “significant progress” in moves to unbundle BT’s local loop, with 14 companies to participate in trials of high-speed services starting in January 2001. Oftel added that from September this year companies will be able to place orders for renting space in BT’s local exchanges for the co-location […]

BT announced Thursday it is to form a new Internet performance management software company with venture capitalist 3i. The new company will develop a software suite codenamed Napoleon, intended to help businesses improve their management and delivery of e-services. As a key strategic partner and one of the main sales and distribution channels for the […]

If it has been a bad week for Microsoft, it is becoming a terrible week for Dutch Internet company World Online, which, according to a newspaper report, is to be sued — not by its own government — but by its own shareholders. De Volkskrant, a daily newspaper of The Netherlands, reported Wednesday that a […]

A new report published Wednesday by the U.K’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport warns the music industry to wake up to e-commerce or face decline. The main problems, identified in the report, are the extremely slow download times of MP3 music files, the lack of payment mechanisms for teenagers without credit cards, and the […]

QXL.com announced Tuesday it has agreed to provide a co-branded auction page for TescoNet, the online service of the Tesco supermarket chain. The deal with Tesco will give QXL.com a fixed presence on TescoNet’s shopping pages, enabling shoppers to bid for consumer goods, holidays and services, or sell their own items online. Jim Rose, chief […]

IBM and business ISP KPNQwest announced Tuesday a ten-year European e-business services initiative that includes plans for a hosting alliance expected to generate over $4 billion in revenues. The two companies say they will split the revenues equally, although the Web hosting centers will be called KPNQwest CyberCenters. The first six CyberCenters will be in […]