Europe Online looks for backing

Europe Online (EOL) is wooing a white knight after its big backer Germany's Burda Holdings GmbH said it would withdraw from the venture. Burda, which had about a third of the recently launched service, plans to focus on German Internet-related investments. EOL said that the new shareholder would be a service operator and not a publisher despite rumours that it was talking to online giant CompuServe. AT&T and the UK's Pearson group, which publishes the Financial Times, are also shareholders. Europe Online claims 25,000 subscribers since its March inception, compared to CompuServe's estimated 700,000 European users and America Online's 200,000.