Eircom shareholders vote for takeover

Shareholders in eircom have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a takeover by Australian investment company Babcock and Brown at a shareholder meeting in Dublin.

The deal, which values eircom at almost €2.4bn, is the fourth time the company has changed hands in six years.

The shareholders who have sold out are not members of the public who originally bought shares in 1999, but financial institutions.

They invested in the company two years ago and made a profit of 62% today. That compares to a loss of about 25% for the 500,000 who had bought in when the Government sold the company.