From: TheStandardEurope.com
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Subject: INTELLIGENCER EUROPE: First Tuesday's first lady launches
dotcom support system
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THE INDUSTRY STANDARD EUROPE'S
I N T E L L I G E N C E R E U R O P E
This week in the European Internet economy
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translations by eTranslate
Wednesday 6 December, 2000
TOP STORY:
* First Tuesday's first lady launches dotcom support system
WORTH REPEATING:
* Julie Meyer on her new venture
BRIEFS:
* News highlights of the week
BY THE NUMBERS:
* Interest in online trading growing in Europe
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TOP STORY
~~~~~~~~~
First Tuesday's first lady launches dotcom support system
After two years spent organising networking events, Julie Meyer now
wants to develop the networks that will sustain 'Europe.com'
By Chris Nuttall
The parties are over for First Tuesday co-founder Julie Meyer. The
European e-commerce matchmaker is launching a new venture to save
start-ups from becoming shut-downs.
Meyer has turned to Greek mythology for the inspiration for her new
company. Ariadne Capital is named after the Cretan princess who loved
Theseus and gave him a sword and a golden thread to help him find his
way through the labyrinth and kill the minotaur. In the same way,
Meyer hopes to help Net companies through the difficulties now facing
them, ensuring they are in a better position to fight off the
increasing possibility of North American dominance of the European
digital economy.
"I've enjoyed telling the First Tuesday story and seeing the surge of
entrepreneurial activity taking off," Meyer told The Industry Standard
Europe. "But I see Ariadne as the opposite to First Tuesday. I see us
in stealth mode, working behind the scenes to make things happen. The
market is not about access to capital anymore, it's really about how
you expand across Europe efficiently. I see the leveraging of networks
now as the real opportunity to build Europe.com."
This is what will make Ariadne Capital different from not only First
Tuesday but also from other venture capital firms,
company-restructuring consultancies or incubators, according to Meyer.
Meyer is an icon of new economy enterprise in Europe. For two years
now, she has overseen the birth of Net companies at exclusive
gatherings on the first Tuesday of every month in a growing number of
major cities.
But times and fortunes have changed dramatically. Meyer's new venture
will represent a role reversal: now she will be tending to the sick
and dying start-ups starved of cash after the collapse of confidence
in the high-tech market.
Building Europe.com is about establishing the connections to create
companies and support systems that can span the continent, she says.
To achieve this, Meyer plans to practice "shuttle-networking" of
Kissinger-like scale and secrecy, rather than First Tuesday
pan-European partying.
Meyer may be uniquely qualified for the task ahead. She is constantly
travelling between European cities making the contacts between capital
and ideas, and aims to link up companies in trouble or looking for
partnerships. She will also hook up big corporates, major financial
institutions and US firms coming into Europe with suitable start-up
partners. Often, they will not be in a distressed state.
"I don't see this as a rescue business," she says. "I see it as a
repositioning of objectives. You should be building multiple scenarios
for your company."
Meyer is chief executive of the new company and plans to double the
staff of seven in the next few months. She is keeping details under
wraps, but the management will include a former head of finance with a
major corporation, the former chief executive of a b-to-b marketplace
and a company-restructuring specialist. As with First Tuesday, she is
providing the seed funding herself but will seek more than #25 million
(40 million euros) in backing next year so that Ariadne can grow and
invest in the start-ups it finds.
"I see Ariadne as the next step, the next project in the overall goal
of building Europe.com, for it to own its own Net economy rather than
being owned by North America," she says. "It has to throw its shackles
off; it's to do with venture capital and knowing each other better.
That's the opportunity and the reason why I want to be in Europe."
http://europe.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,12979,00.html
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WORTH REPEATING
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ariadne will be a tight community. We're trying to be a bolt-on for
companies. Come to us and we're your extended advisory board across
Europe. We're not trying to be an incubator. I'd rather set up a
cooking school."
http://europe.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,12970,00.html
Julie Meyer, co-founder of First Tuesday, on her new venture Ariadne
Capital, which plans to network companies across Europe.
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BRIEFS
~~~~~~
THE MARRIAGE IS ON: After breaking off a German engagement, the UK's
largest ISP said yes to France Telecom, further consolidating the
European market. Wanadoo, France's biggest internet service provider,
had its offer of #1.65 billion (2.74 billion euros) accepted by the
Dixons Group, majority owner of Freeserve. The deal narrows the field
of major European players to five: T-Online, Tiscali, Terra, AOL and
Wanadoo. France's Liberty Surf could be the next target for further
consolidation.
http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=110982215&i=283058&d=704894
BMG PERSISTS WITH PAY-TO-PLAY: Despite Bertelsmann's recent
high-profile alliance with Napster, the German media conglomerate's
New York-based record label continues to plug away with a
pay-per-download strategy. This week BMG Entertainment began testing a
paid digital download system that it plans to roll out in the UK and
Ireland in February. BMG's director for new media said that despite
the public embrace of Napster, paid digital downloads remain part of
the record label's long-term strategy.
http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=110982215&i=283058&d=704895
DEUTSCHE TELEKOM GETS ITS WAY AGAIN: T-Online named Thomas Holtrop as
its new CEO, filling a post at the ISP that has been vacant since
Wolfgang Keuntje left in August. Management problems have been blamed
for the recent weak performance of T-Online, of which Deutsche Telekom
owns 81 per cent. Including Keuntje - who said his departure had been
brought on by Deutsche Telekom CEO Ron Sommer's interference in
T-Online's day-to-day business - the board has lost four of its five
members since August. They have all been replaced by Telekom veterans.
http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=110982215&i=283058&d=704896
GOT NO GAME: A two-day conference, gathering top executives from the
media, sports, and Internet industries to hash out a strategy for
bringing the Olympic games onto the Internet, accomplished nothing.
The International Olympic Committee said it would maintain its
contractual obligations to its TV broadcasters through the 2008 games,
and that the Internet would continue to be a sideline feature. "The
Internet is not ready. Broadband is not yet ready. TV is the engine,"
said a spokesman.
http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=110982215&i=283058&d=704897
VIRGIN RE-BIRTH: Virgin Group's troubled Internet division is to
concentrate on entertainment and shopping. The business will also
undergo a restructuring that will lead to a 25 per cent reduction in
staff by the beginning of 2001. The move comes four months after
Virgin Net said it was selling its ISP business, which has 500,000
subscribers, to NTL for a reported #100 million (164 million euros) in
cash and stock..
http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=110982215&i=283058&d=704898
EU GOT A PROBLEM: The EU's latest e-commerce regulation is vague,
uneconomic and in direct contradiction to other EU laws, critics
claim. The European Union's Council of Ministers adopted a
controversial regulation that will allow consumers to take civil and
commercial disputes against a European Web site to the courts in their
home countries - no matter where the site is based. European
e-commerce businesses are unhappy with 'Brussels 1', as the regulation
is known, which comes into effect in March 2002.
http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=110982215&i=283058&d=704899
CYBER CRIMS: The European Commission says international cooperation
is needed to combat Net crimes that traditional law enforcement simply
can't deal with. Juggling the needs of the law, privacy and the
industry will be the trick. With the creation of a cybercrime forum -
to be established "as soon as possible" - the commission follows in
the footsteps of several of its member states, the G8 and the US.
http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=110982215&i=283058&d=704900
NO SALE: US auction giant eBay suffered another blow in its court
battle with French startup iBazar over its ownership of eBay's French
domain name, as the courts again ruled in iBazar's favour. eBay's main
French competitor is legally allowed to own the eBay.fr domain name,
the court said. The judge based his rulings on a French copyright law
that permits non-competing companies to share a trade name.
http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=110982215&i=283058&d=704901
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BY THE NUMBERS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interest in online trading is growing in Europe, spurred on by
government initiatives, the privatisation of national firms, and
record market performance pulling investors in. Forrester Research
expects to see 8.3 million European brokerage accounts by 2003, while
IDC is even more optimistic, forecasting 16.8 million accounts in the
same year. Growth will be initially driven by the migration of
experienced investors to online brokerages, followed by an influx of
"virgin investors": in the past 12 months, 17 per cent of new trading
accounts were opened by people who had never previously invested,
according to Allegra Strategies. This sector will grow rapidly.
http://tm0.com/sbct.cgi?s=110982215&i=283058&d=704902
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STAFF
~~~~~
Edited by Mike Butcher. Send news tips and press releases to
[log in to unmask] at The Industry Standard's London bureau.
Standard Media Europe
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