Thursday 30 November 2000

IR35: Keeping the Inland Revenue off your back... part two

Top tips for contractors

Biometrics: When will the industry come to its senses?

A couple of years ago security vendors were trumpeting the demise of PIN numbers at the hands of biometric authentication. Identifying people through physical features was the way ahead, they believed. But is this type of secure digital transaction that much more likely now? Pia Heikkila looks for some answers.

Housing benefit? Tailored high-tech office space comes to London

Whether we're talking dot-com boom or gloom, there always appears to be lack of suitable premises for high-tech start-ups, whether in Silicon Valley, London or any one of dozens of other areas around the world.

Picture imperfect: Virus spreads via graphics attachments

Computer Associates claims to have discovered a computer virus that searches and sends graphic files from one PC to another via email.

Transmeta chip failure behind NEC recall

Japanese firm, NEC has been forced to withdraw 284 laptops amid fears they contain faulty Transmeta chips.

Heal's moves its product range online

Furnishings and homeware retailer Heal's is pumping £500,000 into its ecommerce operations.

£30m: The cost of survival for QXL

Online auctioneer QXL was today thrown a £30m lifeline by backers Credit Suisse First Boston to carry it through until profitability is reached in 2003.

German owners pull Thomson's funding for holiday site

Thomson's German owners have pulled the plug on the travel agents' site, Travelchest.com, leaving it looking for a new owner or more cash.

DoCoMo deal will overthrow Europe's mobile advantage

NTT DoCoMo's acquisition of a 16 per cent stake in AT&T Wireless will drive the use of iMode in the US and help the country catch up with the European mobile sector.

High tech office space comes to central London

Dot-com firms will be moving back into the centre of London if top property and venture capitalists firm London Merchant Securities has its way.

Telenor warned over 'illegal' IPO

Norwegian telecoms group, Telenor could find its proposed flotation ruled illegal.

Web advertising spend soars

Internet advertising spend grew by 226 per cent in the first half of this year from 1999, outstripping projections, according to consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Material world: Fabric trade gets e-marketplace

Fine textiles are going online in one of the biggest old economy B2B exchanges and markets.

Sun sees the whole of the moon with cluster upgrade

Sun Microsystems is set to release an upgrade to its clustering software for sharing jobs across several servers.

Siebel launches next generation ebusiness apps

Ebusiness applications and services provider, Siebel Systems has extended its application line by introducing pre-built ebusiness data warehouses and improved marketing automation capabilities.

Freequotes swoops for TheStreet names

E-tail sales defy 'gloom' merchants

Retail ecommerce is still growing sharply, both in the US and Europe, despite the gloom that has descended over the B2C sector since March.

Lernout & Hauspie files for bankruptcy protection

Belgian high-tech firm Lernout & Hauspie (L&H) has filed a Chapter 11 petition for re-organisation protection under US bankruptcy regulations.

Publisher puts critics online

UK book publisher Blackwell has bought web content management tools to create an online book review site.

NTT DoCoMo confirms AT&T purchase

Japan's NTT DoCoMo has confirmed long running speculation that it plans to buy 16 per cent of AT&T Wireless Group for $9.9bn.

Orange misses out on Norwegian 3G licence

The Norwegian government yesterday announced the winners of its beauty contest for 3G mobile licences and favourite Orange lost out completely.

European dot-coms bloom in spite of dot-gloom

The European dot-com industry is shrugging off dot-doom, with well over half of online businesses already making a profit, according to the results of a survey released this morning by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).The news calls into question the current market pessimism for online businesses.

Online banking, Orange is a 3G loser and concerns grow at Sema

The Guardian reports that the long-awaited and oft-postponed internet banking service from the Halifax is now set for a full launch, having originally stalled and subsequently enjoyed a brief existence as a purely telephone-based operation.