EO may live on

A failed investment in NewMedia Spark’s portfolio may live to see the light. EO, the pan European on-line share trading platform, which cost over £3 million to develop and into voluntary liquidation at the end of last year was sold to ADVFN for £150,000.

Since the start of the market downturn in 2000 the IPO market has all but disappeared. EO therefore had no choice but to cease operations. ADVFN said it plans to maintain the platform and reintroduce it when the IPO market returns. Clement Chambers, managing director at ADVFN, said: “If EO had been launched at practically any other time it would have enjoyed a robust market for IPOs and flourished. That it went live at the worst possible moment has given us the opportunity acquire this platform and preserve it for the return of better times.”

News of the deal is rumoured to have angered many of the shareholders in the company when it was reported that Michael Whitaker, founder and chief executive of NewMedia Spark had made a substantial gain on the failed Internet investment,. Whereas other shareholders in the company are said to have lost over 90 per cent of their money. Whitaker was unavailable for comment.