John Lewell

FirstMark Communications, Microsoft and Compaq announced Thursday an agreement to create a series of broadband Internet hosting centers throughout Europe. FirstMark, which is active in twelve major European countries including Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the U.K., says it is working with the other companies to develop a blueprint for the centers. These “Solution […]

Pan-European auctioneer QXL.com announced Wednesday a deal with mobile Internet portal iobox that will enable users to track auctions from their mobile phones. QXL.com says the new service will have a variety of features, including the ability to tell users about the latest deals as soon as they become available. It will inform QXL.com members […]

Sports content provider Sportal announced Tuesday that it will supply football (soccer) content to seven Yahoo! sites in Europe. The deal, which covers Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden and the U.K., is for news stories, live ticker scores, a results service, and other information. Rob Hersov, Sportal’s chief executive officer, was clearly delighted to […]

Swedish group Information Highway/Connecta announced Tuesday that it will acquire berens/partner, one of the largest Internet consultancies in Germany. Information Highway/Connecta will pay for the purchase by issuing 16.3 million new shares in a deal that values berens/partner at 225 million euros ($218 million). Information Highway/Connecta is itself still in the process of merging its […]

Global carrier Teleglobe announced Monday its intention to offer data, Internet and voice services to businesses in Germany in the second quarter of this year. Already serving German ISPs and telecommunications carriers, Teleglobe says the move reflects its strong growth in the German market where it is the third largest carrier of outgoing international voice […]

Oracle Corp. announced Monday the global availability of its FastForward program, enabling mid-sized companies to put together e-commerce solutions in rapid time with minimum risk. The announcement was one of several made by Oracle in Paris at its Applications User Conference Europe. Other announcements included the unveiling of complete euro conversion functionality for its e-business […]

Broadband Internet supplier chello broadband nv announced Friday that it will expand its delivery of services to multiple platforms including DSL, wireless and Direct To Home (DTH) technology. Currently, chello delivers its services over cable in Europe and by satellite in Australia. The move to other platforms will entail extensive development and testing, already in […]

Online travel company ebookers.com announced Thursday its acquisition of two European travel agencies with combined annual revenues of $22 million. The agencies are the sports travel bureau Rejsegalleriet A/S, based in Denmark, and the well established Dutch travel agency Reisbureau Nova. ebookers.com did not say how much it has paid for each agency, just that […]

Wealthy startup 1eEurope this week continued its acquisition trail — on which it expects to spend a total of nearly $300 million — by taking over e-business firm Netsolv. 1eEurope says it will build a pan-European network by acquiring the most innovative of Europe’s Internet service providers. Netsolv is a U.K. company whose clients include […]

Europe’s second largest IT services company Sema Group plc and software developer LHS Group Inc. Wednesday announced a merger of the two firms that aims to capture a piece of the mobile e-commerce pie. Under the terms of the deal, LHS shareholders will get 27 per cent of the combined group, receiving 2.6 new Sema […]

Shares in the U.K’s online late-offers specialist Lastminute.com rose around 40 per cent when first-day trading began Tuesday morning, valuing the company at around £1 billion ($1.58 billion). However, the quarter of a million small investors who applied for shares were not especially happy with the outcome, securing just 35 shares apiece. Many savvy investors […]

In advance of its planned merger with Scandinavian consultancy Information Highway, Sweden’s Connecta announced Tuesday that it will acquire Albatros Network, a B2B consultancy based in Denmark. Connecta will pay 69 million SEK ($7.8 million) for Albatros which has 60 employees and offices in Copenhagen and Arhus. The move is the first stage in a […]