• Online British games portal Gameplay yesterday announced it had bought five games firms from Germany's Computec Media for £47.6m. The purchase is part of Gameplay's push to replicate in Germany its UK position. "The UK and Germany take up 40% of the games market, so if we can win there we have a good chance of winning in Europe overall," chief executive Mark Bernstein said. Shares in Gameplay gained 81p or 10.9% to a new high of 822p.

• Broadband venture: Leading maker of website servers Sun Microsystems has joined Microsoft in a $50m equity investment in BroadBand Office, which wires offices for high-speed net and telecoms services. The investment is the first time the two have taken a stake in the same start-up.

• European capital: The online investment bank focused on Europe, EPO.com, has raised $12.5m (£7.81m) through a syndicate led by European venture capital investor Catalyst Fund Management & Research. Also investing are Ze Project, a subsidiary of Europ@web, the net investment vehicle of firms including Bernard Arnault and Bank Boston.