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eclipsis builds war chest for online travel offensive

Internet Bookshop founder at the helm

Darryl Mattocks -- who made £3.6 million last year when WH Smith bought the Internet Bookshop for £9.8 million -- is hoping to repeat his success with an online travel service. The 34-year-old businessman is looking to raise £2.75 million for eclipsis.com to help grow the business with an all-out marketing offensive. Some of the cash raised from the sale of almost 14.5 million shares, offered at 19p, will also be used to buy new software. Mattocks believes the UK and European markets for such a service are still in their infancy with no overall business currently assuming a dominant position. Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said that this contrasted sharply with the US market which was already showing signs of over crowding. Aimed at business users, eclipsis.com is free to use and offers travellers the choice of thousands of flights each day. Last week ex-Boomtown Rat singer and the man behind Band Aid launched his own online travel service. Sources claim, however, that at the launch of Deckchair.com, Bob Geldof said: "It shows how sad you all are, coming to the launch of something as boring as an Internet site." Well, there's confidence for you. ® Register Dictionaroid 223 A mattock, our trusty Chambers tells us, is a kind of pickaxe for loosening soil, with a cutting end instead of a point. It comes from the Old English word 'mattuc'.

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