Mallon reports, its virtual life was short-lived; it has ceased trading and sold most of its assets to a new Bermuda-based company.

EBS Ltd's vision for the Internet was hailed as revolutionary and welcomed with open arms by Bermuda last year.

The idea of `virtual offices' using `e-suites' in an offshore domicile to avoid taxes caught the imagination of not only local Government and business, but also the world. These e-suites allowed for a legal corporate entity to be formed under which a business anywhere could conduct business or data storage in Bermuda without having the cost of incorporating or having a so-called bricks and mortar presence.

EOCnet.com, the name under which EBS Ltd traded, was featured not only in The Royal Gazette but also in The Wall Street Journal, The Times and The New York Times as well as a plethora of trade magazines and journals.

One article in the Nilson Report, a publication which covers transaction processing said: "Clients receive legal status that combines elements of a corporation with those of a limited liability partnership.'' But the trail-blazing idea may not be dead and buried with news yesterday of the demise of EBS Ltd.

Although playing their cards close to their chest, newly formed OECommerce.com, who has bought the key rights to the act which allows the company to have its virtual offices, are likely to take the system forward, and even keep the name of EOCnet.com.

OECommerce.com was set up in December by Bermuda-registered e-commerce giant Transworld Network International to manage the newly acquired business, and with such backing it is hard to see the venture failing again.

OECommerce.com chief financial officer Claude Le Blanc said: "This transaction was, coming from a telecommunications world, a natural fit for us and we are extremely positive about our business in the electronic commerce market.'' He confirmed that his company was formed in December 1999 specifically to deal with the new business they were taking on.

While he said he was not yet able to discuss the future of EOCommerce, he said: "Our business will be a fully integrated turn-key e-business solution provider.'' The distinct lack of hype for the new venture -- not a peep of the buy-out or the problems at EBS have surfaced -- may mean that EOCommerce.com is taking a different tack from EBS, and playing it cool this time around.

The first the Island heard of the electronic mall company was in March last year, when EBS Ltd, billed at that time as an electronic brokering service, presented a private bill to Parliament indicating it wanted to set up a transaction service here.

The company was touted as the largest inter-bank broker in the world with over 800 banks using 2,500 EBS workstations to trade in 20 currency pairs. The company's move to Bermuda was seen as a coup for the Island's upstart e-commerce industry.

EOCnet.com was launched on June 3 to trade as the electronic solutions offered by EBS Ltd., with the business located at Richmond House, Par-la-Ville Road.

The Government was so impressed by the Private Members Bill to allow such business to be transacted, that it used the revolutionary scheme to base the Island's e-commerce laws upon.

In August the company released a statement saying it had set up a target of $75 million in revenues in five years from the US and Canada.

The company also boasted that it already had 200 customers and was in the process of vetting them before setting up its transaction procedure.

After much hype, e-suites firm fails But the company's chief executive officer Granger Whitelaw resigned from the company in September last year and staff were soon after laid off.

It has taken since then for a deal to be reached with OECommerce.com, a company which is majority owned by Bermuda-registered Transworld Network International Ltd, which has offices here, Canada and US. Transworld is an established provider of telecoms services.

As for EBS, it will not be wound up, but will for the moment serve as a holding company for a minority stake in OECommerce. It is not known how much money was raised by EBS or what the impact of the company's collapse will have on shareholders, but it is believed that they may also have a stake in the newly formed company.

Millions are known to have been spent on marketing by EBS -- the sponsorship of an Indy Racing League Car in May last year cost at least $1 million.

E-investors: Anthony Nagel (right) is among a long list of prominent local businessmen with shares in EBS. At left is American Lee Olsen, who along with founder and CEO Granger Whitelaw, held the majority stake in the e-commerce upstart.