BUSINESS
In the papers 6 October
06-10-2000
by
KPN to sell Eircom stake | Net2Phone revenues climb but losses soar
The Irish Examiner reports on Thursday's announcement by Dutch telco Eircom that it will sell its 21 percent shareholding in Eircom. Shares in Eircom fell 1 cent yesterday but the paper said the general market view is that the price is unlikely to fall much further unless "sentiment in the market" deteriorates.
In other telco news The Irish Times reports on a blow to Nevadatele.com, the Northern Ireland business telecommunications firm which has planned to move to an all-Ireland basis next week. The paper said the company has lost four key staff who will now form an Internet security services firm called Celare.
The Irish Independent reports on a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit for KPMG International, which showed that the financial services industry is ahead of other industry in its adoption of Web technologies and implementation of e-commerce systems. The paper said that 40 percent of financial services executives are also willing to tolerate lower short-term revenues as they move to e-business models.
Abroad, the Wall Street Journal reports on the performance of Internet telephony firm Net2Phone, which showed a massive USD15.9 million loss, or 29 cents a share, for the quarter ended July 31. Net2Phone, which is conducting a voice over IP trial with Eircom in Ireland, also reported that its revenue more than doubled. The company didn't state what its net loss was for the quarter, although the number of minutes it service logged had more than doubled to 167 million minutes.
Bloomberg, finally, reports that doomed e-commerce retailer Boo.com is coming to life again courtesy of Fashionmall.com. Boo.com is to be relaunched on October 30 with around 250 items for sale, the paper said, although Fashionmall won't reveal the retailers involved and declinded to say when the site would be profitable.
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