IBM has announced a $65 million (£45 million) investment plan where it will be doing the old fostering of ties with European Web consultancy companies. Big Blur will spend $15 million this year and $50 million next year on "building alliances" with Internet consultancy firm through its Web Integrator Initiative.

We're not entirely sure what this all means and entails - and IBM isn't too keen to explain either - but hey, $65 million is going to get you somewhere. It has also promised "virtually limitless" access to its resources for those companies that presumably sign up with it.

IBM has also said it will "build sales and technical teams" all over Europe with the intention of building new tech labs. The people most likely to benefit are those that already "work closely" (sorry about all these brackets) with IBM. People like ICON Medialab in Belgium, Nettec in the UK. IBM's shares went up 1.5 per cent the same day as the announcement. ®