Dot-com fallout hits Europe

NEWS American retail giant Buy.com has halted the launch of its European websites just one week before they were due to go live. The company was expected to launch the sites in conjunction with internet incubator @viso which is a joint venture between French-based Vivendi and Japan's Softbank. A spokesman for @viso France said: "Buy.com decided to build up its financial reserves. Financial markets are looking more closely at ecommerce companies, as the market jumps a lot at the moment, so Buy.com said it wanted to improve its US financial results before it invests in continental Europe." However, a new date has not been set for the launch of the sites. The spokesman confirmed: "The offices of Buy.com France and Buy.com Germany have been closed and the employees have found alternative work within the group." A spokesman for Buy.com Germany blamed the cultural difficulties of launching in Europe. He said: "Buy.com America pulled out of the deal as it wants to concentrate on its English speaking markets. Under the current conditions in the market it is difficult to proceed. It would be hard as a lot of work is involved in understanding the language and the types of products we would be selling." He claimed the move had come as a surprise for Buy.com's European employees. Jonathon Steel, managing director at the Bathwick Group, said: "This is not a good thing for Buy.com but a lot more companies will do this or contemplate it. It is a rather inevitable thing to do right now as the market is changing." Warning that the high profile failures in the B2C marketplace are merely the tip of the iceberg, Steel said: "We've not seen the end of it. In fact we've barely seen the end of the start of it." Another casualty of the battle for profits in the B2C marketplace is Dressmart.com. The company has closed its European operations and its Swedish backers have begun liquidation proceedings. The company blamed financial restructuring for its sudden demise.