Atlantica - 01.06.2004, Blaðsíða 62

A T L A N T I C A 59
ATLANTICA BUSINESS SECTION
One of the latest changes of scenery in terms of Iceland’s business land-
scape is the recent merger of Búnadarbanki and Kaupthing Banks, which
took place in May 2003. The new bank, called KB Bank, has assets totalling
over 5.5 billion euros, putting it among the Nordic region’s ten largest
banking groups.
The merger also makes the banking group the largest in Iceland, leading
the pack in a full range of investment banking services, including asset and
comprehensive wealth management services for private banking clients
and corporate finance. In July 2003, the financial magazine Euromoney
named the bank the best in mergers & acquisitions, debt, and equity, in
addition to naming it the best local partner.
KB Bank has operations in ten countries, including the Nordic countries,
United Kingdom, and the United States. IAM
ICELAND’S
LARGEST BANK
TURNING ONE ONLINE
May 6, 2004 marks the first anniversary of the international launch of Eve
Online, a massive multiplayer online game developed by an Icelandic gam-
ing company, CCP Games. With online games, success is measured in the
number of satisfied players, and Eve has them in tens of thousands. Ever
since the game started selling online and CCP took control of distribution
of their product, players have been signing up from all over the world.
The gameplay takes place in a fictional universe on the other side of a
wormhole from our own. Players act as merchants and scientists, or as
pirates, in a fictional world that is completely driven by the actions of play-
ers. This universe they take part in creating has its own economy and play-
ers must be successful at business to get ahead in the game.
Eve has been breaking records this year with almost ten thousand users
playing in the same universe at once, whereas most online games of this
kind have only two or three thousand at a time. Users are able to come back
into the game at any time provided that they do not get killed in one of the
huge battles that break out over trade disputes.
There will be exciting developments in the game in the months to come,
with a new super-advanced clan emerging in the Eve universe. The folks at
CCP hope to reach 50,000 users by the time of their first birthday and with
numbers steadily growing, it looks like they might just make it. IAM
KB Bank now has a large New York office. P
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