John Lewell

U.K. car buyers will be able to save up to 41 per cent on the price of a new car at OneSwoop.com, the pan-European online car buying service launched this week. Patricia Hewitt, the U.K.’s Minister for e-commerce and small business, opened OneSwoop.com for British users. Within the next few months the site will be […]

First Direct, a division of HSBC Bank plc, announced that customers for its new e-bank, will be able to register from Thursday morning onwards. The e-bank is due to go live in June. Already, 200,000 customers of First Direct, the world’s largest virtual bank and a pioneer of telephone banking, transact their banking online. Alan […]

Latin American online auctioneer Mercadolibre.com announced Tuesday its first European service in Spain, supported by an office in Madrid. At the same time, Mercadolibre.com also announced services for Colombia, supported by an office in Bogota. Marcos Galperin, chief executive officer of Mercadolibre.com, said his company’s goal was to become the leading auction site for the […]

Cap Gemini Tuesday outlined terms for the acquisition of nearly all of Ernst & Young Consulting, with a price tag estimated 11.5 billion euros ($11.1 billion). The initial agreement covers Ernst & Young Consulting businesses in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. It is expected that the Ernst & Young […]

Press reports that online auction house eBay may mount a billion-pound ($1.6 billion) bid for Sotheby’s caused further market speculation Monday. By midday trading, Sotheby’s share price had risen over 20 per cent on the London Stock Exchange, following the article published by London newspaper The Independent over the weekend. The rumored bid, which is […]

Publishing software developer Adobe Systems announced Monday the launch of nine e-commerce sites for the European audience. The new stores, headquartered online at eurostore.adobe.com, will cater to markets in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Adobe said it also planned to expand by setting up an online store […]

European media group Bertelsmann AG says it will float its online bookstore BOL on the Neuer Markt in the second quarter. Proceeds from selling up to a quarter of the shares in bol.de will raise funds for expanding the e-commerce operation into other areas. However, Bertelsmann says its does not expect to branch out into […]

European high-speed Internet provider chello broadband announced Friday that it has opened an office in Brazil in preparation for the introduction of its services to Latin America. chello, an operating company of United Pan Europe Communications (UPC), says it will provide a high-speed Internet service in Latin America within the next 12 months. At the […]

Redstone Telecom this week said it intends to raise around £121.3 million ($194 million) by means of a 3 for 11 rights issue. Redstone says it will use the money to deploy high-speed Internet and data networks, and also to purchase Telefficiency Limited, a switchless reseller of telecoms services which will cost £16.5 million ($26.4 […]

IP telephony provider deltathree.com says that for the first time it is offering direct access services from western Europe, enabling users there to cut the cost of telephoning by up to 90 per cent. deltathree.com will make direct access available to callers in nine European countries: Germany, Austria, France, Finland, Sweden, the U.K., Spain, Italy […]

Europ@Web, the Internet investment company of the Bernard Arnault empire, has taken a stake in WineandCo in return for investing around 100 million French francs ($17 million) in the international wine distributor. WineandCo has established Internet sites to serve France, Italy and England, and now plans to speed up its development in other countries. It […]

Bertelsmann International launched two new Internet music channels Tuesday, delivering popular British and German music to fans throughout Europe. Making the service possible is technology from Westwind Media.com, the Denver, Colorado-based back-end solution provider of audio and video content for the Internet. The American company has established a co-location in Germany specially for the project. […]