Yahoo! has agreed to buy eGroups for $430 million and fold the business into its exisiting communication businesses - Yahoo!Mail, Yahoo!Messenger and Yahoo!Clubs.

eGroups, which was set up to help Net users form and maintain email groups, is now going to generate ad revenue for Yahoo! eGroups claims its 17 million members have created more than 800,000 email communities. Yahoo! says its services handled more than 3.6 billion messages in March.

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365 Corp has struck a three-year deal with Energis to get broadband access for its services and let it offer voice and data services to its customers.

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B2B dotcom dealings aren't dead in the water like their B2C cousins. To illustrate this, network management business Orchestream enjoyed having its shares leaping 69 per cent above issue price when it floated yesterday.

The issue was nine times subscribed. At close it was valued at £362 million. Analysts forecast Orchestream will make a loss of £10 million on sales of £2.7 million this year, according to the FT, and generate sales of £15 million in 2001.

The company sells software to help telcos prioritise traffic using Internet technology.

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Net investment business, Jellyworks, is thinking about taking its ball home and going back to being a private company. The FT reports the firm reckons the stock market has failed to recognise the value of investments. ®