E-bookers.com said second quarter sales rose 839 per cent to $30 million for the second quarter. Pre-tax losses before stock compensation increased to $10 million from $1 million. The online travel company said passenger numbers increased 1900 percent in the first half to 184,000 from 9600 a year earlier.

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Online booze business Lastorders.com has grabbed £2.5 million from Royal Bank of Scotland, Aberdeen Asset Management and some private investors. RBS coughed up half the funding and now has a place on the board.

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Peter Wilkinson, widely credited as the architect of Freeserve, has announced the upcoming IPO of another of his online ventures. Songplayer, which provides online music tuition for guitar and keyboard players, is to float on Ofex where it is expected to raise about £1 million through the sale of two million shares. The company is expected to have a capitalisation of about £9 million.

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IQ-Ludorum - an e-gambling software developer - is to float on AIM. The company is looking to raise between £11 million and £16 million to help expand the outfit. The company is valued at between £80 million and £90 million.

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Two board members at interactive investor international (iii) have left the company. It's unclear whether John Blowers, group marketing director, and sales director, Martin Harris, went of their own accord or were pushed. Reports suggest that they were booted because of the company's flagging share price.

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Holidaybreak, the camping holiday organiser, has bought Hotelnet, an online hotel booking business, for an initial consideration of £1.3 million in cash. This will give the company access to Hotelnet's online booking systems. The deal will also involve a deferred payment of £500,000 in Holidaybreak shares.

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Anderson Consulting and antfactory said today they are to start a joint venture to provide investment for Internet start-ups. Antfactory will put $150m into the initiative, and the two aim to complete 12 projects in the first year of the agreement. ®

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