Accounting change would wipe £2.3bn value from Hi-tech UK

As much as £2.3 billion could be wiped off the value of UK technology companies if new proposals from the Accounting Standards Board are taken up. The board recommends that IT companies be compelled to show share options as a cost in their profit and loss accounts. According to a report from Capital Strategies, this would lop an average of 5.65 per cent off the value of each company.

Internet Incubator - a European technology consulting and business group - has been admitted to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), it announced today. The company raised around £3.2 million net of expenses and boasts a market cap of almost £40 million.

Irish telco eircom is to enter the ASP market after investing E1.65 million to acquire a 49 per cent stake in Beacon Integrated Solutions Ltd.

Car giants Vauxhall and Ford have locked heads in an online discounting war. Both companies are offering discounts of between five and eight per cent to buyers who make their purchases online. Neither company could make solid predictions about how much business they expected to conduct online. ®