Sick Incubator market gives birth to research

The over-hyped under-funded Internet Incubator Fund phenomenon may be collapsing around its ears, but there's money to be had in researching the topic. Step forward IDC, which says Incubators will need to develop "highly differentiated, value-added services to compete for and successfully grow their services". Now why didn't we think of that. If stuff like this is your bag of tea, roll up to the IDC Business Services: Incubators Research program here

Bright Station's £250,000 purchase of technology assets from Boo.com, the cash and burn etailer, is a Best Buy. How do we know this? Easy - an abject front- page apology in

to Bright Station and its MD Dan Wagner, for "any suggestion (in its June 1 issue) that Bright Station did not make a good purchasing decision". (For the record, we said the purchase was a huge bargain.)

Michael Foster, the MD of FT.com, is leaving the company after "turning down an alternative post with the Financial Times Group," the

. Michael Murphy, from FT Business, and Zach Leonard, from FTMarketwatch, will run the show on an interim basis. FT.com's monthly page impressions are 27m, up from 7m one year ago, and revenues are forecast to climb from £5 million to £16 million over the same period, the

says.

Bradford & Bingley is to flog mortgages and other financial services through its Charcolonline subsidiary on Freeserve, the monster pan-UK ISP. Financial details have not been released.

ebookers.com is probably Europe's biggest Internet travel agency. And that means big losses, racking up at $3 million per month. It also means it's got six whole months before a $18 million cash mountain erodes into a cash-free anthill. But in a statement to Nasdaq and the Neuer Markt, where it is listed, the company said it was in "advanced negotiations with a number of parties over long-term financing." Ebookers.com points out that it had told investors at the time of flotation that it expected to raise more money in the second half of 2001. Its announcement was prompted by what the

describes as an influential German newsletter, which said ebookers was running out of money.

Fashion portal Zoom is to start handling site design, ordering, and delivery for any retailers wanting to get online. Its first deal is with Actif Group which owns the rights to Elle merchandise in Europe. Zoom is half owned by the Arcadia retail group and half owned by Associated Newspapers and boasts 13 million page impressions a month. ®