failed in February has been appointed vice president of a new e-business software developer in the United States.

Lee Olsen was the Chief Executive at EBS Ltd, which was used as a model for the Bermuda Government to base its e-commerce regulation upon, and sold most of its core business just months after a much hyped launch.

Mr. Olsen blamed internal management problems for the collapse of Bermuda's premier e-commerce company.

Yesterday CoreCommerce Inc., which calls itself a leading developer of next generation e-business software, announced it had appointed Mr. Olsen as Vice President of Business Development as well as appointing another vice president at the same time.

"We are very pleased to welcome these dynamic executives to the CoreCommerce team,'' said John Ioannou, President and Chief Executive Officer.

"Both possess the senior level experience and business savvy that will add significantly to CoreCommerce's management depth, complementing the company's already strong software engineering talent.'' In the release, CoreCommerce, paints a very different picture of what happened to EBS and Mr. Olsen's role in its demise.

EBS Ltd a holding company, which used the service name EOCnet.com to trade under, ceased trading at the beginning of the year and sold off most of its assets to OECommerce, a company set up and owned by communications giant Transworld.

These assets include not only the EOCnet.com internet site, but also the ground breaking private act of incorporation by EBS which was passed by Parliament which allows the owner of the site to sell "virtual offices'' in Bermuda to businesses who can take advantage of Bermuda's lack of corporate tax, favourable operating regulations and will not have to even incorporate on the Island.

In February Mr. Olsen told The Royal Gazette that there had always been two options with the company - to go public or to sell it off.

He said he saw the sell-off as `successful' but said there were some issues between the public founding partners The CoreCommerce release said: "Mr.

Olsen was a co-founder and COO of Bermuda-based EOCnet.com, considered revolutionary in off-shore e-business. After successfully selling the company to London Telecom in December 1999, he continued his role as CEO of an international e-business consulting company -- Magnus Global Consulting Inc.

The release went on to state that Mr. Olsen is credited with coining the phrase `Multimedia Computing' during his 22 years at IBM.

It added: "During his IBM career he managed sales, marketing and development groups including the IBM Multimedia Business Partner Program.