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British bank blows £15m on failed e-venture
Someone at A&L deserves a really good kicking
The Alliance & Leicester has become the latest casualty of the dotcom banking craze. Having spent £15 million on an online financial service for the "mass affluent", it's decided to ditch the scheme. The FT quotes A&L group MD, Peter McNamara, as saying that "we've learnt the lessons of others". Bloody expensive lesson, no?
Energis is to buy 75 per cent of Ision, a German Web hosting and application solutions company for £496 million in cash and shares. Ision boasts some 800 complex hosted sites and a rack of blue chip clients. Mike Grabiner, CE of Energis, said: "This acquisition significantly strengthens our existing operations in Germany and takes a major further step in our strategy to become the leading data and internet solutions provider in Europe.
The Body Shop has ended its partnership with Softbank Technology Ventures and moved in-house the development of its e-shop. The Body Shop said it would give Softbank up to $6 million, either in cash or shares, for the work carried out to date. The lotions and potions outfit said it now hoped to open a US e-store in the second half of 2001. ®
For more punishment, check out Cash Register.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
