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Technology Stocks : EBOOKERS.COM (ebkr) - priceline/expdia of Europe -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: blankmind who wrote (28)	11/18/1999 8:55:00 PM
From: blankmind	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 85

Ebookers.com Travel Bookings Jump Fourfold In 20 Weeks November 17, 1999 LONDON -- Ebookers.com PLC (EBKR), the European on-line travel agency, Wednesday said the number of airline tickets booked through its Internet site rose to a record 1,000 last week. This compares with a previous weekly figure of 260 tickets 20 weeks ago and 643 bookings 10 weeks ago. The London-based company, which last week floated on the Neuer Markt and Nasdaq, believes the key to the fourfold rise in bookings over the last 20 weeks is their increased marketing effort and the honing of its product. All of which has tapped into a growing trend among European travelers to book their tickets on-line. At 1115 GMT, shares in ebookers.com were unchanged at EUR20.50. -By Anthony Dovkants;44-171-842-9272 anthony.dovkants@dowjones.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Briefing Book for: EBKR \| U.EBK

To: blankmind who wrote (28)	11/18/1999 10:06:00 PM
From: Gary Korn	Respond to of 85

11/18/99 USA TODAY 12B (See Bold) USA Today Copyright (c) 1999 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. Thursday, November 18, 1999 MONEY Internet brings European change E-commerce alters economies Beda Romano Special for USA TODAY MILAN, Italy -- Sardinia is known for its beautiful beaches and its good food, but hardly for high-tech. However, the Mediterranean island is home to one of Europe's most successful Internet companies: Tiscali. A 20% stake in the company, part telecom and part Internet service provider, was sold to institutional and retail investors in October. On the first day of trading on the Milan stock exchange, the shares jumped as high as 73.5 euros, up from the offer price of 46. Wednesday, it closed at 123.30 euros, or $128.40. Last week, European Internet travel firm ebookers.com, offered shares for sale in New York and Frankfurt. The stock, priced at $18, opened at $36, touched a high of $43, and then closed at $26 5/8. Wednesday, it closed on the Nasdaq at $23. Tiscali and ebookers.com are examples of how the Internet is changing European financial markets -- and the European economy. "There is huge liquidity flowing in the European Internet sector. The tide will lift all boats," says Peter Bradshaw, head of Internet research with Merrill Lynch in London. "There will be great winners, but also a lot of wreckages." Still, for now, "The momentum for Web companies in Europe is tremendously positive," he says. "And Tiscali is one example of a successful company." The firm was founded in June 1997 by Renato Soru, a 42-year-old Sardinian entrepreneur with a degree from Milan's best-known business school, Bocconi University. At first, Tiscali's market was limited to Sardinia, but the firm took advantage of a wave of deregulation and started offering competitive prices for phone calls in Rome and Milan. Following the example of another Internet pioneer, Britain's Freeserve, Tiscali shook the cozy Italian telecommunications market in March by offering free-of-charge Internet access. The company grabbed 250,000 new customers in less than 20 weeks. And telecom giants such as Telecom Italia, Infostrada and Wind had to play catch- up. "Our goals are simple," says Luigi Filippini, Tiscali's chief operating officer. "We want to improve our portal by offering the best possible content and expand internationally, promoting both Internet and telecommunications services." The company hopes to become profitable in 2001, although Soru says it may be possible to break even next year. Ebookers.com started life in November 1996 as the Web site of Flightbookers, a travel agency offering air tickets with discounts of up to 65%. It was founded by Dinesh Dhamija, who previously worked at IBM and Royal Nepal Airlines. The decision to spin off the Web site and float it was made in July. But before the Nov. 11 IPO, Dhamija had to turn the company from a Britain-based travel agency to a pan-European business. So he bought a travel agency in France and opened offices in four other European countries. Dhamija said recently that his company wants to be a European leader in the online travel booking business and will move into 12 other countries soon. Ebookers.com posted $5.7 million in revenue during the first six months of 1999 and a net loss of $2.2 million. "It's clearly an interesting company," says Merrill Lynch's Bradshaw. "The travel business is the one which will be disrupted the most by the Internet in Europe." ---- INDEX REFERENCES ----

To: blankmind who wrote (28)	11/18/1999 10:08:00 PM
From: Gary Korn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 85

11/18/99 Daily Telegraph (London) 37 1999 WL 27198192 The Daily Telegraph Copyright (C) 1999 The Daily Telegraph; Source: World Reporter (TM) Thursday, November 18, 1999 Connected - Netlife: Choose a madcap holiday Richard Longhurst Instead of planning your next holiday around half-term or the chance of snowfall in the Cairngorms, why not try to take in the Singapore Duck Race or The Biggest Liar in the World competition? These madcap events, and thousands like them, have been rounded up at Whatsonwhen.com, where you'll find holiday inspiration in everything from Italian football to Vivaldi concerts in Paris to a long-boat festival in Thailand. With 14 categories to choose from, there's bound to be something to satisfy even the most jaded seen-it-all-before holidaymaker. Register for the site and you can personalise it with entries from your favourite sections and paste events to remember into an online scrapbook. When you come to book a flight or search for a hotel, you're sent spinning towards Expedia, but there are plenty of other online booking options. One such site is the flight-booking service eBookers, which is trying to drum up trade with one of the biggest online competitions to date. It has teamed up with Beenz and ISP ic24 to give away a pounds 40,000 holiday on a private island in the Seychelles, a jaunt that you and nine friends are bound to remember. But how do you enter? You have to give them your email address and those of the pals who will be accompanying you on the holiday. Luckily, there's time for a quick trip to Hotmail first. www.whatsonwhen.com www.ebookers.com ---- INDEX REFERENCES ---- KEY WORDS: SERVICE & PRODUCT USE; COMPANY NEWS; HOLIDAYS & TRAVEL; GENERAL NEWS; UNITED KINGDOM, EUROPEGB; EUROPE; EUROPEAN