Infobank sells its software arm in focus on ebusiness

Business-to-business ecommerce will be the sole focus for Infobank International after it completes a £6.5m management buyout for its software division.

Business-to-business ecommerce will be the sole focus for Infobank International after it completes a £6.5m management buyout for its software division. It is also in merger talks with an unknown partner.

The sale of its software reseller business, Internet Software Corporation, to Ever 1129, Infobank director Paul Ridley's company, is the culmination of an ongoing redirection process.

The deal is subject to shareholder approval and an emergency meeting has been scheduled for 16 December.

The buyout comes a week after Infobank's shares rose by 160p and it revealed it is in "exploratory discussions which may or may not lead to a proposal for the merger of the company".

David Courtier-Dutton, investor relations director at Infobank, said it was "far too early to read anything into the discussions".

But Ian Spence, analyst at Richard Holway, said Infobank was attractive as it had increased its ecommerce market presence.

Although the firm is one of the UK's leading resellers of desktop software, the division posted a loss of £200,000 for the year ended 31 December 1998.